backburner

See also: back-burner and back burner

English

Etymology

From back +‎ burner.

Noun

backburner (countable and uncountable, plural backburners)

1. Alternative form of back burner
   • 2024 January 24, Stefanie Foster, “Metro-land's legacy for today's railway”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 57:

     There had been plans to extend electrification from Harrow to Rickmansworth. But when the First World War broke out in 1914, this and a new branch to Watford were placed on the backburner, along with further housing development.

Verb

backburner (third-person singular simple present backburners, present participle backburnering, simple past and past participle backburnered)

1. (transitive, idiomatic, informal) To relegate to a lower priority.
   • 2013, Lorna Stewart, BBC News, Love letters and kindness may improve mental health‎^[1]:

     "What I noticed was that my sadness and loneliness got backburnered," she told the BBC.

Translations

to relegate to a lower priority

• German: zurückstellen (de)