backbenches

Noun

backbench (plural backbenches)

1. A bench at the back of a room or seating area.
   • But no one was waiting at the backbench and the older fellow looked as if he had dug in to stay.2003, Charles Mitchell, Hues of Tokyo: Tales of Today's Japan, →ISBN, page 169
   1. (New Zealand, UK, attributive, often) In a house of legislature following the model of the Westminster system (such as the UK House of Commons), any bench behind either of the front benches and occupied by members of each party group who are not party leaders, cabinet ministers, holders of offices such as the whips, etc.
      • His spacious quarters indicate his transition from backbench upstart to established member of the governing team.
   2. The back row of a classroom.
      • The petitioner who was a student of Class X was in the backbench when a lady teacher was teaching there.1981, Arun Bhattacharjee, Misconduct of Students: A Legal and Disciplinary Study, page 82
   3. The back pew of a church.
      • Through this two-year, transcontinental colloquy, through this vast outpouring of personal sentiments and reactions from poor homes and rich, from backwoods cabins and metropolitan penthouses, from the young and old, from dubious backbench sitters and busy pillars of the congregations, from the...1972, Douglas W. Johnson, George W. Cornell, Punctured Preconceptions: what North American Christians Think about the Church
   4. A back bench in a courtroom.
      • Seated on the backbench of the courtroom, Emerald had mixed feelings.2001, Pearl Ayi-Bonte, Almost Like Love: The Love that Never was, page 17
   5. The back seat of an automobile, van, or bus.
      • They scooted into a double seat near the rear and noticed that even with four people squeezed into the backbench, they had been lucky to find the last empty places.2003, Virginia Kreimeyer, Sins of the Fathers, →ISBN, page 15

See all 11 meanings of backbench