warm the bench

Idioms

Also, ride the bench. Be a secondary or substitute participant; wait one's turn to participate. For example, I can't wait till the head of accounting retires; I've been warming the bench for years. This expression comes from such sports as baseball and football, and their standard practice of having substitute players sit on a bench in case they are needed in a game. [Slang; early 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Most superb high-school athletes either can’t make a college team or warm the bench.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025

As the saying goes, the modern game is a squad one and these guys could warm the bench, perhaps even break out into a song or two to get the crowd going.

From BBC • Jun. 26, 2015

Ben Foster, Craig Gardner, David Bentley and Nikola Zigic all warm the bench while Obafemi Martins gets the chance to impress from the start.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2011

He led me to believe he meant to give me a chance to-day, and then he let me warm the bench while Grant went out to win all the glory.

From Rival Pitchers of Oakdale by Scott, Morgan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023