back seat

noun

ˈbak-ˈsēt 

variants or less commonly backseat

1

: a seat in the back (as of an automobile)

2

: a secondary or inferior position

… the issues and concerns that have sometimes been given a back seat …

—Al Gore

see also take a back seat

Examples of back seat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In a second interview, Bender told authorities a man threatened him with a gun and forced him to sit in the back seat of his car during the robbery, the release states. —Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4 Apr. 2024

Plausibility of action and psychology appears to have taken a distant back seat to concerns of how the performers look in the variably skimpy or low-cut costumes by Gabbi Edmunds. —Dennis Harvey, Variety, 4 Apr. 2024

Judging by the photos in the auction ad, back seat room looks pretty slim. —Logan Carter / Jalopnik, Quartz, 3 Apr. 2024

Brooks, who was 19, was in the back seat of the suspects' car when she was allegedly raped and let out on the side of a busy, four-lane highway, where she was fatally struck by an oncoming car. —Chris Eberhart, Fox News, 13 Mar. 2024

The Insurance Institute said that the standards for inclusion were toughened this year with the Institute demanding better protection for back seat passengers and pedestrians. —James Powel, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2024

Before long, the owner arrived in the back seat of a C.H.P. cruiser, looking sour; he had been detained in a traffic stop near his home. —Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024

The two had folded themselves into the back seat of a pedicab and were rocketing uptown. —Mattie Kahn, Vogue, 18 Mar. 2024

Amedy sunk into the back seat on the passenger’s side, directly behind her mother. —USA TODAY, 17 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1715, in the meaning defined at sense 1