take a back seat

present singular third person takes a back seat · participle present taking a back seat · past took a back seat · participle past taken a back seat

1. idiomaticTo adopt a position of noninvolvement.

   The new chairman is happy to take a back seat when it comes to day-to-day operations.

2. idiomaticTo be second to someone or something; to be less important or have a lower priority.

   2004, My Life by Bill Clinton But as with most kids, politics took a backseat to daily life.

   2 more examples

   The bluntness of King Vajiralongkorn's intervention—and the determination it reveals to resist relatively small checks on royal power—is both a snub to the junta and a worry for democrats, some of whom had dared hope that the new king might be happy to take a back seat in public life.

   2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2020

   Mr. August, a screenwriter for movies like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” said that while artificial intelligence had taken a back seat to compensation in the Writers Guild negotiation, the union was making two key demands on the subject of automation.

   2023 April 29, Noam Scheiber, John Koblin, “Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2023

   Antonyms: take the front seat