"on the back burner" meaning in English

See on the back burner in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-on the back burner.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=on the back burner}} on the back burner, {{en-PP|head=on the back burner}} on the back burner
  1. (idiomatic) Not immediate; inactive; receiving or requiring less than full or regular attention. Tags: idiomatic Translations (not immediate): op een laag pitje (Dutch), hautumassa (Finnish), hyllyllä (Finnish), au second plan (French), en veilleuse (French), en attente (French), en pause (French), auf der Wartebank (German), auf Sparflamme (German), in secondo piano (Italian), na drugi plan (Polish), em banho-maria (Portuguese), en segundo plano (Spanish), på sparlåga (Swedish)
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          "type": "example"
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          "ref": "2023 March 14, Alexandra Jacobs, “Your Annoying Roommate Is Slaying on TikTok”, in The New York Times:",
          "text": "After some years sweating on the back burner of show business, Ms. Brier, 28, has found instant success on the social media platform of the moment, TikTok.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "Not immediate; inactive; receiving or requiring less than full or regular attention."
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      "id": "en-on_the_back_burner-en-prep_phrase-U8YR7~8k",
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          "immediate",
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        "(idiomatic) Not immediate; inactive; receiving or requiring less than full or regular attention."
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        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "op een laag pitje"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "hautumassa"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "hyllyllä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "au second plan"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "en veilleuse"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "en attente"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "en pause"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "auf der Wartebank"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "auf Sparflamme"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "in secondo piano"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "na drugi plan"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "em banho-maria"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "en segundo plano"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "not immediate",
          "word": "på sparlåga"
        }
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    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "op een laag pitje"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "hautumassa"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "hyllyllä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "au second plan"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "en veilleuse"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "en attente"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "en pause"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "auf der Wartebank"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "auf Sparflamme"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "in secondo piano"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "na drugi plan"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "em banho-maria"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "en segundo plano"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "not immediate",
      "word": "på sparlåga"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the back burner"
}

Download raw JSONL data for on the back burner meaning in English (3.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.