bench warmer
1
6.7
- noun
- /bɛnʧ ˈwɔrmər/
- Informal
:
jugador de reserva
- Very few of those players actually made it in the NBA because they weren't at all prepared, and they went from superstar to bench warmer for four years while they tried to learn what most players learn in college.
Examples
-
We went down and I knew all the players on the entire team, even like the the substitute and rookies and like bench warmers that nobody knew.
-
And you sound quite bitter at the fact that Keyshia is married to, as you so ignorantly put it, a bench warmer.
Blog text (18) -
My first thought was bench warmer.
Blog text (9) -
Under such circumstances, even a bench warmer like myself was as busy as a one-armed paperhanger, processing computer data generated by the techs running time transceivers.
Fiction book (1998) -
In Liam's view, this was a tragedy; it embarrassed him to remind me that his gift was still vital when mine was not—that he was a starter and I was now only a bench warmer in the world-saving game Humphrey had trained us both to play.
Fiction book (1998) -
He felt frustrated being abench warmer on the team while his friends played in every game.
-
Despite hoping for more playing time, she was often just abench warmer during the season.
-
As abench warmer, he spent most of the game watching from the sidelines without any chance to score.
Synonyms
1
7.5
A player who usually sits on the bench and replaces others during games
1
7.9
A person who sits on the sidelines and does not play
A player who rarely plays and stays on the bench during games
A player who is third in line to replace other players and rarely plays
Antonyms
How Often
Surface Forms
Morphology
bench + warmer
The compound is partly transparent: a learner who knows 'bench' (a seat or, in sports, the substitutes) and 'warmer' (one who warms) can plausibly infer someone who 'warms the bench' — i.e. stays seated and does not play. However, the precise sense 'a substitute who rarely plays' depends on sports-specific knowledge and a metaphorical extension, so the meaning is not fully predictable for a B1 learner, making it semi-transparent.
Etymology
Bench warmer comes from sports. Imagine a player who sits on the bench so long they 'warm' it instead of playing, so the phrase means 'a substitute player who rarely or never plays'.