back seat

See also: back-seat and backseat

English edit

back +‎ seat

back seat (plural back seats)

Any of the seats in the rear of a vehicle.
Synonym: rearseat

Coordinate term: front seat
- 2011, Rebecca Black featuring Patrice Wilson, Friday
  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?
(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.
- 2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist‎^[1]:
  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.

seat

position