wheel within a wheel
A complication of circumstances, motives, etc.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“This situation is a wheel within a wheel.”
“You will find a wheel within a wheel in this office drama.”
“Every new layer of the investigation reveals a wheel within a wheel.”
“The legal case became a wheel within a wheel, involving hidden motives and secret agreements between the companies.”
“The family business was a wheel within a wheel, where every small decision was actually influenced by a secret agreement made thirty years ago.”
“I thought the project failed because of the budget, but there was a wheel within a wheel involving the manager's personal plans.”
“The charity scandal turned out to be a wheel within a wheel, hiding a much larger network of offshore bank accounts and fake identities.”
“Behind the simple political dispute lay a wheel within a wheel of complex alliances and long-standing personal grievances that few observers truly understood.”
From the Bible, the Book of Ezekiel 1:16, where it appears in a description of the divine chariot. The prophet recounts a vision of celestial creatures accompanied by wheels of beryl, whose construction appeared as a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
- 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
fifth wheel
Anything superfluous or unnecessary.
- 04
grease the wheels
To create conditions likely to produce or hasten favorable future developments.
- 05
hamster wheel
To cycle fruitlessly.
- 06
hell on wheels
A situation that is tough, aggressive, lawless, and wild.
- 07
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.
- 08
set of wheels
A car.
Last updated August 10, 2026