Idiom
grease the wheels
Meaning
To create conditions likely to produce or hasten favorable future developments.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“A small gift can help grease the wheels of a difficult negotiation.”
“You should send a thank-you note to grease the wheels for your next request.”
“The manager offered extra bonuses to the team to grease the wheels before the big project launch.”
“The diplomat organized a private dinner for both leaders to grease the wheels before the official peace talks began the next morning.”
“Hiring a local consultant helped grease the wheels when the company tried to open its first office in a foreign country.”
“By offering generous concessions to the local authorities, the developers sought to grease the wheels for the approval of their ambitious urban renewal project.”
Examples
simple
“A small gift can help grease the wheels of a difficult negotiation.”
“You should send a thank-you note to grease the wheels for your next request.”
contextual
“The manager offered extra bonuses to the team to grease the wheels before the big project launch.”
“The diplomat organized a private dinner for both leaders to grease the wheels before the official peace talks began the next morning.”
“Hiring a local consultant helped grease the wheels when the company tried to open its first office in a foreign country.”
complex
“By offering generous concessions to the local authorities, the developers sought to grease the wheels for the approval of their ambitious urban renewal project.”
Origin
From the mid-19th century, a metaphor portraying human socioeconomic interaction as the movement of machinery. The idiom posits that a process or system may be facilitated by lubricating its components, much as one might apply grease to a literal wheel to ensure its rotation. The concept of the lubrication payment and the social lubricant operate on the same mechanical premise.
Key words
Related idioms
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