Given this phrase:
That's the most important part out of the way, but could I just ask you a few questions for a survey we're conducting?
Does it mean that it is just the most important part? Or it means we left the most important part behind? Or what actually? Thanks in advance.
It means that you just concluded the most important part of the conversation and that the speaker would now like to move on to a less important part (asking questions for a survey). For example, if you are negotiating a salary raise with your boss, once the raise has been negotiated, she might say "Now that that's out of the way, how are you?" because the purpose of the conversation (negotiating the raise) has been fulfilled.
