back-burner

adjective

Having low urgency; not currently important.

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Meanings

adjectiveback-burner (comparative more back-burner, superlative most back-burner)

comparative more back-burner · superlative most back-burner

  1. idiomaticHaving low urgency; not currently important.
verbback-burner (third-person singular simple present back-burners, present participle back-burnering, simple past and past participle back-burnered)

present singular third person back-burners · participle present back-burnering · participle past back-burnered · past back-burnered

  1. alternativeAlternative form of backburner.

    Cops closed them all with a code: NHI. The unsolved crimes had been back-burnered until a reporter revealed that the letters stamped on the police files were shorthand for No Human Involved.

    2008, Linda Fairstein, Killer Heat, page 191
Cite this entry
APA

back-burner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/back-burner

MLA

“back-burner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/back-burner. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “back-burner,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/back-burner.

Source: back-burner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.