idiom · neutral
on the back burner
UK/ɒn ðə bæk ˈbɜːnə/US/ɑːn ðə bæk ˈbɜrnər/on·the·BACK·BURN·er
to delay dealing with something because there are more important things to do first
Examples
“The renovation plans were put on the back burner while the company dealt with a financial crisis.”
“I had to put my hobby on the back burner during exam season.”
“We can leave that idea on the back burner until next quarter.”
Band 8 sentence
“Given current priorities, we'll leave product redesign on the back burner until resources free up.”
Collocations
- put something on the back burner
- leave on the back burner
Word family
Common mistakes
on back burner→on the back burner
back in the burner→on the back burner
Say it for a higher band
5postpone→6put on hold→7+on the back burner
Synonyms
put on hold
defer
Easily confused
put on hold
“The project was put on hold pending further funding.”
Related words
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In Work
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