fifth wheel
Anything superfluous or unnecessary.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“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.”
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.
- 01
big wheel
A person with a great deal of power or influence, especially a high-ranking person in an organization.
- 02
break the wheel
To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse.
- 03
grease the wheels
To create conditions likely to produce or hasten favorable future developments.
- 04
hamster wheel
To cycle fruitlessly.
- 05
hell on wheels
A situation that is tough, aggressive, lawless, and wild.
- 06
reinvent the wheel
To do work unnecessarily when it has already been done satisfactorily by others; to attempt to devise a solution to a problem when a solution already exists.
- 07
set of wheels
A car.
- 08
set one's shoulder to the wheel
Synonym of put one's shoulder to the wheel.
Last updated August 10, 2026