Backburner

noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of back burner. alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable

    "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
  1. 1
    To relegate to a lower priority. idiomatic, informal, transitive

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

Synonyms

All synonyms
dinkydispensableimmaterialinappreciableinconsequentialinconsiderable

Example

More examples

"They had to put that project on the backburner until financing was arranged."

Etymology

From back + burner.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.