0 the seat behind the front seat of a car
1 a position of less importance:
Nelson will never take a backseat to anyone.
Lessons on grammatical rules, pronunciation, and the like - never mind pragmatic or sociolinguistic conventions - take a backseat to lessons on ideology.
In contrast, speech perception and phonology, though objects of serious scientific inquiry, have at times taken a backseat in these grander debates.
The rising middle class with its strong consumerist tendencies has meant that political awareness and political sophistication in general has taken a backseat.
At the institutional level, narrow organizational effectiveness takes a backseat to distributive politics.
Meeting the target of 10 million tons of sugar in 1970 became enshrined as a matter of political prestige and regime legitimacy, and consequently, economic rationality took a backseat.
Gender issues continue to take a backseat in this sector, and levels of female involvement in fisheries bodies and associations remain very low.
It is not for us to backseat drive through this sort of technical detail.
I mention that only because it is notoriously difficult for husbands and wives to teach each other to drive except, of course, for backseat driving, which is often unstoppable.
