in the back of his mind

[Silverobama]

Hi,


What does this sentence mean?


With the idea of quitting in the back of his mind, he turned down the next assignment .


This is definition of "in the back of one's mind", but I couldn't understand it yet.

The remote part of one's mind or memory


Thanks a lot

[SoothingDave]

Consider what you are thinking about actively as being in the "front" of your mind. Those things that you think about on occasion, or when the "front" of your mind is not busy, are in the "back" of your mind.

In this case, the man has not decided to quit his job just yet. But part of his mind is thinking about quitting, and it influenced his decision.

(Just to be clear, "front of the mind" is not an expression, I used it to explain "back of the mind.")

[susiedqq]

With the idea of quitting in the back of his mind, he turned down the next assignment .


He turned down (refused) the next job, because he had been thinking about quitting anyway.

He had thoughts of quitting in the past and they helped him decide what to do that day.

[Silverobama]

I'm sorry for my slow-wittedness; I still feel confused.


With the idea of quitting in the back of his mind, he turned down the next assignment .

I am just wondering if the former part and the latter part contradicts each other.

"With the idea of quitting in the back of his mind", according to both of you, means "He occasionally thought of quitting his job", this action or the idea of quitting his job didn't impact him too much, so he shouldn't turn down the next assignment, he should accept it, right?

[5jj]

With the idea of quitting in the back of his mind, he turned down the next assignment .
I am just wondering if the former part and the latter part contradicts each other.

"With the idea of quitting in the back of his mind", according to both of you, means "He occasionally thought of quitting his job", this action or the idea of quitting his job didn't impact him too much, so he shouldn't turn down the next assignment, he should accept it, right?

There are many possibilities; only context will tell. Here are two suggestions.

1. If the idea of leaving the job was in his mind, then perhaps he consisidered it unethical to begin a new assignment that he might have to give up in the middle.

2. Perhaps he just didn't enjoy the assignments any more. In the past, perhaps he needed to accept them in order to ensure his future income. Now that he was considering leaving, that was not important.

[Silverobama]

After reading your next-to-perfect explanation(only too long) about my stupid sentence, I got it finally.

And I am really grateful for your help.

This is also from an online dictionary.

[birdeen's call]

This is also from an online dictionary.

It would be better if you had said it in the first post.