Word.ws English Dictionary

taken a back seat

taken a back seat is the past participle of take a back seat.

Meaning of take a back seat

Verb

take a back seat (third-person singular simple present takes a back seat, present participle taking a back seat, simple past took a back seat, past participle taken a back seat)

  1. (idiomatic) To adopt a position of noninvolvement.
    • The new chairman is happy to take a back seat when it comes to day-to-day operations.
  2. (idiomatic) To be second to someone or something; to be less important or have a lower priority.
    • But as with most kids, politics took a backseat to daily life.2004, My Life by Bill Clinton

Questions about taken a back seat

What is taken a back seat the past participle of?
Taken a back seat is the past participle of take a back seat.

Words near taken a back seat in the dictionary

  1. Takemi
  2. Takemoto
  3. Takemotos
  4. taken
  5. taken (something) to
  6. taken a back seat
  7. taken a bath
  8. taken a bead on
  9. taken a beat
  10. taken a bite
  11. taken a bite out of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taken a back seat (page history and authors); take a back seat (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “taken a back seat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taken_a_back_seat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.