Idiom
fifth wheel
Meaning
Anything superfluous or unnecessary.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I feel like a fifth wheel when I go out with them.”
“I do not want to be a fifth wheel on your date tonight.”
“They invited me to dinner, but I felt like a fifth wheel while they talked about their vacation.”
“The office hired a new consultant, but since we already have a full team, he acts like a fifth wheel during our meetings.”
“The project manager realized the extra software tool was just a fifth wheel because the basic program already did everything they needed.”
“Despite his host's polite attempts to include him in the conversation, he could not shake the uncomfortable sensation of being a fifth wheel at the dinner party.”
Examples
simple
“I feel like a fifth wheel when I go out with them.”
“I do not want to be a fifth wheel on your date tonight.”
contextual
“They invited me to dinner, but I felt like a fifth wheel while they talked about their vacation.”
“The office hired a new consultant, but since we already have a full team, he acts like a fifth wheel during our meetings.”
“The project manager realized the extra software tool was just a fifth wheel because the basic program already did everything they needed.”
complex
“Despite his host's polite attempts to include him in the conversation, he could not shake the uncomfortable sensation of being a fifth wheel at the dinner party.”
Origin
Derived from the mechanical redundancy of a four-wheeled vehicle, such as a carriage, coach, or wagon, possessing a wheel-like component that is not required for the machine to operate.
Sense 3 records the term as a reference to any person or object that is superfluous or unnecessary. While a prime mover or truck requires its specific configuration to function, the fifth wheel remains a component defined by its own excess.
Key words
Related idioms
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