Dictionary

backbencher en · NOUN

Etymology

From backbench + -er.

Meanings

1. A Member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank, and who therefore sits on one of the backbenches or in one of the back rows of the legislature.
2. A student who does not perform well, especially one who sits at the back of the classroom.
   • The teacher also gets an idea of the "backbenchers" or the slow students since he can see which desk is still to send an answer. 2000 March, Renu Sahni, Nandita Satsangee, Vishal Sahni, Soami P. Satangee, “Intelligent Class Rooms of the Future”, in Proceedings of the National Seminar on Applied Systems Engineering and Soft Computing, →ISBN, page 630:
   • When I was in a primary school, I was a backbencher student. 2014, Jill Brown, Navigating International Academia: Research Student Narratives, →ISBN, page 630:
   • Classmates naturally turn to look at the backbencher, who must acknowledge his presence, with some embarrassment. 1978, Ralph Canada, Charles Cheatham, Tony Licata, Surviving the first year of law school, page 37:
3. A member of a team who does not usually play, but who is held in reserve.
   • The plucky backbencher began his life in hockey as a player, breaking into the professional game with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Portland Rosebuds in 1916– 17, but turned amateur again the following season. 2009, Doug Lennox, Now You Know Big Book of Sports, →ISBN, page 35:
   • During 1994, the national team players were away for a game in January and again during the season-ending league championship tournament in April. The “backbenchers” won all these games. 2000, Nancy Theberge, Higher Goals: Women's Ice Hockey and the Politics of Gender, →ISBN, page 39:
   • By the second scrimmage of the season he was a backbencher, suspended from the game for disciplinary reasons. 2014, Paul Gionfriddo, Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia, →ISBN:
4. (broadly) Someone who does not play an active role in a process.
   • But, Jack was a backbencher in the committee. His main function was to keep an eye on the theatre's income. 2017, Edward Dayes, So cause her downfall, →ISBN, page 90:
   • Mayorga was no backbencher in the dirty war. He had been chief of the naval base in Trelew in 1972, when one of the first massacres took place. 2015, W. John Green, A History of Political Murder in Latin America, →ISBN, page 122:
   • As we stated in previous chapters, counselors and other student support personnel have been backbenchers in the ongoing drama of school reform. 2006, Karen Seashore Louis, Molly F. Gordon, Aligning Student Support With Achievement Goals, →ISBN:

Forms

Coordinates

frontbencher

Translations (21)

sv parlamentsledamot (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · is venjulegur þingmaður (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · de Hinterbänklerin (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · de Hinterbänkler (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · cmn 後座議員 /后座议员 (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · ru заднескаме́ечница (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · fr simple député (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · fr député sans portefeuille (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · fr députée sans portefeuille (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · bg редови депутат (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · ru заднескаме́ечник (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · fr député de l'arrière-ban (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · ru рядово́й член парла́мента (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · ja 平議員 (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · ka პარლამენტის რიგითი წევრი (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · is þingmaður sem ekki er í flokksforystunni (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · is venjuleg þingkona (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · cmn 普通議員 /普通议员 (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · fi takapenkkiläinen (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · gv cooyl-vinkeyr (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank) · is þingkona sem ekki er í flokksforystunni (member of Parliament who does not have cabinet rank)