• back-bencher

Frombackbench +‎-er.

backbencher (pluralbackbenchers)

1. (politics) AMember of Parliament who does not havecabinetrank, and who therefore sits on one of thebackbenches or in one of thebackrows of thelegislature.
2. (education) Astudent who does not perform well, especially one who sits at theback of theclassroom.
   • 1978, Ralph Canada, Charles Cheatham, Tony Licata,Surviving the first year of law school, page37:

     Classmates naturally turn to look at thebackbencher, who must acknowledge his presence, with some embarrassment.

   • 2000 March, Renu Sahni, Nandita Satsangee, Vishal Sahni, Soami P. Satangee, “Intelligent Class Rooms of the Future”, inProceedings of the National Seminar on Applied Systems Engineering and Soft Computing,→ISBN, page630:

     The teacher also gets an idea of the "backbenchers" or the slow students since he can see which desk is still to send an answer.

   • 2014, Jill Brown,Navigating International Academia: Research Student Narratives,→ISBN, page630:

     When I was in a primary school, I was abackbencher student.

3. (sports) A member of ateam who does not usuallyplay, but who is held in reserve.
   • 2000, Nancy Theberge,Higher Goals: Women's Ice Hockey and the Politics of Gender,→ISBN, page39:

     During 1994, the national team players were away for a game in January and again during the season-ending league championship tournament in April. The “backbenchers” won all these games.

   • 2009, Doug Lennox,Now You Know Big Book of Sports,→ISBN, page35:

     The pluckybackbencher began his life in hockey as a player, breaking into the professional game with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Portland Rosebuds in 1916– 17, but turned amateur again the following season.

   • 2014, Paul Gionfriddo,Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia,→ISBN:

     By the second scrimmage of the season he was abackbencher, suspended from the game for disciplinary reasons.

4. (by extension) Someone who does not play an active role in a process.
   • 2006, Karen Seashore Louis, Molly F. Gordon,Aligning Student Support With Achievement Goals,→ISBN:

     As we stated in previous chapters, counselors and other student support personnel have beenbackbenchers in the ongoing drama of school reform.

   • 2015, W. John Green,A History of Political Murder in Latin America,→ISBN, page122:

     Mayorga was nobackbencher in the dirty war. He had been chief of the naval base in Trelew in 1972, when one of the first massacres took place.

   • 2017, Edward Dayes,So cause her downfall,→ISBN, page90:

     But, Jack was abackbencher in the committee. His main function was to keep an eye on the theatre's income.

• frontbencher