The AI-powered English dictionary
plural back seats
Any of the seats in the rear of a vehicle. quotations examples
Gotta catch my bus, I see my friends / Kickin' in the front seat / Sittin' in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up / Which seat can I take?
2011, Rebecca Black featuring Patrice Wilson, Friday
(informal, especially in the expression take a back seat) A lesser or inferior position; a position of deliberate noninvolvement, in which decision-making or leadership is left to others. quotations examples
The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.
2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist