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Business English vocabulary · Office Idioms and Phrases

On the back burner

Meaning in business english, with examples

idiomCommon term

In business english, on the back burner means: Postponed or given low priority for now, so that it can be dealt with later when there is more time or money.

In Turkish: rafa kaldırılmış, beklemeye alınmış, ikinci plana atılmış

How it is used

Usually with 'put': 'We've put the app redesign on the back burner'. It suggests that the idea is not dead, only waiting. It comes from cooking: on a stove, the back burner keeps a pot warm while you focus on the front.

Example sentences

  1. The new office project is on the back burner until sales pick up.

  2. We had to put the training plan on the back burner during the audit.

Common collocations

  • put something on the back burner
  • on the back burner for now
  • move something to the back burner
  • prioritizeTo decide which tasks are most important and deal with them first, or to treat one thing as more important than others.
  • postponeTo move a meeting, event or decision to a later time than the one originally planned.
  • low-hanging fruitTasks, problems or opportunities that are easy to deal with and bring quick results, so they are usually tackled first.
  • on my radarDescribing something you know about and are paying attention to, even if you are not working on it right now.

More terms: Office Idioms and Phrases

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