warm the bench
verb
Simple meaning
To remain out of play during a game or match.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wawrmthuhbehnchSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɔɹmðəˈbɛntʃ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
sportscolloquial
To remain out of play during a game or match; to act as a substitute.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: To remain out of play during a game or match; to act as a substitute.
Used this way, warm the bench is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a sporting use: familiar to anyone who follows the game, and puzzling to anyone who does not.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Sports
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.