Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Chiefly British The rear benches in the House of Commons where junior members of Parliament sit behind government officeholders and their counterparts in the opposition party.
- noun New members of Congress considered as a group.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun any of the seats occupied by backbenchers in the House of Commons of Great Britain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun politics, UK, New Zealand In a
house oflegislature following the model of theWestminster system (such as the UKHouse of Commons ), any bench behind either of thefront benches and occupied byrank-and-file members.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of the seats occupied by backbenchers in the House of Commons
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Frontbenchers must all work to sustain backbench morale, they were told, even by making their share of backbench speeches outside their own responsibilities.
Political briefing: Solid start for Ed Miliband, but he has a long way to go Michael White 2010
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All petitions hitting the landmark total are referred to the backbench business committee, which decides certain motions for Parliamentary debates.
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I can't recall another backbench initiative like this in recent times.
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My own view is that 'backbench' councillors are well paid, but Board Members earn every penny.
Jockeying for Position. Glyn Davies 2008
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On the one hand, backbench members and talk radio yakkers have an incentive, at least given the demonstrated conservative market, to stake out the most extreme position, so that whatever the speaker does winds up being defined as weak-kneed mush given, again, the obvious fact that Boehner can't actually get this stuff enacted into law.
Will Tea Partyers buy the constitutional amendment con? Jonathan Bernstein 2011
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It seems to me that Gordon Brown just hid his distaste for the old-Etonian better than his backbench colleague.
Gordon Brown and the suspension of normal politics Not a sheep 2009
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The elder statesman in May left Singapore's cabinet, where he served as minister mentor, and, while still a member of Parliament, he has moved to the backbench, reserved for less-influential policy makers.
Illness Underscores Singapore Transition Shibani Mahtani 2011
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As he later wrote as a backbench blogger for the Guardian see panel no PM or opposition leader who was "slow-witted, corrupt or simply not up to the job" would survive.
Why we should cherish prime minister's questions | Michael White 2011
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Pick some working class backbench nomark to generate some headlines and let the real culprits sneak out of town (To Washington DC to meet Obama on Tuesday to be precise)
Sir Fred Goodwin Was My Chauffeur ! Alan Smart 2009
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As for the Tories, backbench interventions showed that many of them have bought into the Blair/Bush ‘War on Terror’ even more strongly than their Labour counterparts.
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