front bench
1
6.5
- noun
- /frʌnt bɛnʧ/
- Jargon
:
banco del gobierno
- It was a dignified and eloquent sound bite, however, that helped push him to Congress' front bench a couple of years earlier.
We don't have a single person now in in, in on the front bench who's ever been in business at all.
- We don't have a single person now in in, in on the front bench who's ever been in business at all.
- That with the Oxbridge set, on both front benches at the Oxbridge set, I mean, nearly all of them do PPE, They nearly all do the same blooming degree.
Examples
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So please, we don't, we don't want to see an empty front bench Prime Minister.
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There are women on the front benches of all parties in senior positions.
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Jay and I sat side by side on the front bench while Tom and Luke, who were running the motor, sat in the back.
Fiction book (2002) -
We don't have a single person now in in, in on the front bench who's ever been in business at all.
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Rosie and I sat on the front bench near Marsha's friends.
Fiction book (2000) -
They were seated on the front bench, and arrayed behind them and along the walls were uniformed guards.
Fiction book (2001) -
That with the Oxbridge set, on both front benches at the Oxbridge set, I mean, nearly all of them do PPE, They nearly all do the same blooming degree.
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And Naomi, so proud, she just sat down on the front bench rocking and softly praying, "merciful Lord, mercy," with a kind of gratitude that everybody felt, and they were glad to hear somebody.
Fiction book (2002) -
The members of the government were seated together on the front bench during the debate.
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Many prominent leaders from the opposition party occupy the front bench in Parliament.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'front' (nearest a viewer) and 'bench' (a seat) allows a learner to infer that this refers to seats at the front, so part of the meaning is directly compositional. However, the specific institutional sense—that these particular front seats are reserved for government ministers or leading opposition members—is a conventional, domain-specific use not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Front bench comes from the literal seats at the front of a parliament room: the front row of benches where the main leaders sit. That's why it now means 'government ministers' or 'top members of the opposition'.