hamster wheel

English

Noun

hamster wheel (plural hamster wheels)

1. A circular cage for a hamster or other small rodent, which rotates vertically as the animal runs at its base.
2. (figuratively, by extension) A monotonous, repetitive, unfulfilling activity, especially one in which no progress is achieved.
   • 2002 June 28, Michiko Kakutani, “Books of the Times”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 September 2008:

     The overall mood of this volume is one of melancholy and loss, weary resignation to one's lot—trudging round and round on the rusty hamster wheel of life.

   • 2020 May 6, Prof. Andrew McNaughton, “Time to challenge some sacred philosophies of recent years”, in Rail, page 32:

     Before the current pandemic, the rail industry appeared to be trapped on an ever-accelerating hamster wheel, trying to keep up with customer demand and political expectation on an essentially historic system itself exposed to greater impacts of climate change.

Synonyms

• (rotating cage): squirrel cage
• (a monotonous, repetitive, unfulfilling activity): rat race

Verb

hamster wheel (third-person singular simple present hamster wheels, present participle hamster wheeling, simple past and past participle hamster wheeled)

1. (intransitive, informal, idiomatic) To cycle fruitlessly.
   • 2015, Patti Grayson, Ghost Most Foul, page 111:

     I was shocked that I'd forgotten about the game that morning, but my mind had hamster-wheeled around for hours during the night, long after I should have been asleep.

   • 2019, Mary Hughes, M. J. Chase, Chicago's Chosen:

     But my brain was hamster-wheeling on that one hopefully-not-true-but-probably-was fact.

See also

• hamsterization
• rationalization hamster

Anagrams

• weather helms