backbencher

plural backbenchers · alternative back-bencher

1. governmentA 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. educationA student who does not perform well, especially one who sits at the back of the classroom.

   When I was in a primary school, I was a backbencher student.

   2014, Jill Brown, Navigating International Academia: Research Student Narratives, →ISBN, page 630

   2 more examples

   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

   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

3. hobbiesA member of a team who does not usually play, but who is held in reserve.

   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

   2 more examples

   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

   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

4. broadlySomeone 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

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   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

   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