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backseat driver
1. A passenger in a vehicle (not necessarily in the backseat) who attempts to instruct the driver or criticize his or her driving skills. John quickly became annoyed at Mary's tendency to become a backseat driver whenever he drove her somewhere, so he just began to let her drive.
2. By extension, someone who tries to establish and maintain control over every situation. Primarily heard in US. Although Mary was capable of completing the project on her own, John couldn't stop himself from being a backseat driver and telling her what to do.
backseat driver
Fig. an annoying passenger who tells the driver how to drive; someone who tells others how to do things. I don't need any backseat driver on this project. Stop pestering me with all your advice. Nobody likes a backseat driver!
take a backseat (to someone or something)
Fig. to become less important than someone or something else. My homework had to take a backseat to football during the playoffs. Jimmy always took a backseat to his older brother, Bill, until Bill went away to college.
take a backseat (to somebody)
to let someone else deal with something I was happy to take a backseat and let my brother deal with the family crisis.
Etymology: based on the idea of sitting in the backseat of a car and letting someone else drive
take a backseat (to something)
to be considered to be less important than something else For many kids, homework takes a backseat to sports.
a backseat driver
1. a passenger in a car who continuously tells the driver how they should drive Mike's a real backseat driver and I find it so irritating.
2. (mainly American) someone who expects to control things although it is not their responsibility to do this Tell her you're in charge now. It's time she stopped being a backseat driver.
backseat driver
A passenger who gives unwanted and/or unneeded directions to the driver; also, a person who interferes in affairs without having knowledge, responsibility, or authority for doing so. For example,
Aunt Mary drives us all crazy with her instructions; she's an incurable backseat driver. This term originated in the United States in the 1920s, when it was first used for a passenger legitimately directing a chauffeur, and it was quickly transferred to figurative use. Also see the synonym
Monday-morning quarterback and the antonym
take a back seat.
backseat driver
n. an annoying passenger who tells the driver how to drive; someone who tells others how to do things. I don’t need any backseat driver on this project.