Official Terminology Reference · Publication IAD-GL-2026
Benching n.
Keeping a person in the roster without playing time: enough contact to retain them, never enough to start them. The benched party is a contingency, activated only if a preferred option falls through.
The defining metric is response latency: instant when she is bored, days when she is not.
You are not in a slow burn. You are on call.
Representative usage
He got a "heyy" every time her other plans collapsed. He called it a connection. It was a backup.
IAD Field Report No. 18, 2026, Unpublished.