take a backseat, to
take a backseat
1. To be given a lower priority. Unfortunately, I had the flu last week, so everything else around the house had to take a back seat.
2. To willingly take a less prominent role in some situation. I took a back seat during the presentation because I knew you could handle it.
See also: backseat, take
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
take a backseat (to someone or something)
Fig. to become less important than someone or something else. My homework had to take a backseat to football during the playoffs. Jimmy always took a backseat to his older brother, Bill, until Bill went away to college.
See also: backseat, take
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
take a backseat, to
To occupy an inferior or relatively obscure position. Equating the backseat of a vehicle with inferiority dates from mid-nineteenth century America. Max Beerbohm used the figure of speech in Around Theatres (1902): “He brought on a circus procession . . . and Oxford had to take a back seat.”
See also: take
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- take a back seat
- take a backseat
- in fine fettle
- in fine/good fettle
- be in fine fettle
- fettle
- fine fettle, in
- brown bottle flu
- have one foot in the grave
- one foot in the grave, have