on the back burner

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

on the back burner

1. (idiomatic) Not immediate; inactive; receiving or requiring less than full or regular attention.

   Antonym: on the front burner

   That project is on the back burner until we deal with higher priorities.

   • 2023 March 14, Alexandra Jacobs, “Your Annoying Roommate Is Slaying on TikTok”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     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.

Translations

not immediate

• Dutch: op een laag pitje
• Finnish: hautumassa, hyllyllä
• French: au second plan, en veilleuse, en attente (fr), en pause (fr)
• German: auf Sparflamme
• Italian: in secondo piano
• Polish: na drugi plan
• Portuguese: em banho-maria
• Spanish: en segundo plano
• Swedish: på sparlåga