Meaning of back burner | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A section of a stove used to keep some pots warm while one focuses on others.
   countable
2. A state of low urgency; a state of low current importance.
   figuratively, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“In restaurants, the back burner is the place⟳ that chefs leave⟳ their sauces and soup stocks to simmer while they are engaged in other, more immediately pressing, and faster operations on the front burners.”

“Also, avoid⟳ reaching across a lit burner in the front of the stove to stir⟳ a pot on a back burner. Turn⟳ the front burner off while you tend⟳ to food on a back burner.”

“We'll put⟳ next year's Christmas party on the back burner until we deal⟳ with the current financial crisis.”

“I kept cases on the back burner for years—just thinking about them, playing them out in my head, waiting for the time to work⟳ it, or a lucky break⟳.”

“I made myself push⟳ those issues to the back burner after completing another dispute form⟳.”

“Before this bail-out, it had been widely speculated that the project would have⟳ to go on the back burner.”

CEFR level