hamster wheel

[ham-ster hweel, weel]

noun

1. a cylindrical framework, usually within a cage, that is rotated by a hamster or other small animal running inside of it.

2. any situation that seems to be endlessly without goal or achievement.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hamster wheel¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

All too often, the financial industry lures us onto the hamster wheel of chasing high returns, where we have to run so fast we never even notice what we pay to play.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The plan was to return to California sometime in 2024 and hop back on the restaurant hamster wheel.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

For those who wish to hear it, there’s a lesson in this: the only way to “win” is to get off the hamster wheel of precarious masculinity.

Read more on Salon

In 2014, Ukraine's Mariya Yaremchuk trapped one of her dancers in a giant hamster wheel, while Romania brought a literal cannon to their performance in 2017.

Read more on BBC

He is richer than any person has ever been, but he has trapped himself on a golden hamster wheel.

Read more on Slate