Synonyms

third wheel

American

[thurd weel, hweel] / ˈθɜrd ˈwil, ˈʰwil /

noun

a person or thing that does not belong or is not wanted or needed.

When my wife’s sister is here the two of them talk up a storm, and I feel like a third wheel.

Etymology

Origin of third wheel

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Banderas allows the cinematographer Jasper Wolf to introduce him with a close-up of the gray in his beard, and then settles into the role of being the movie’s third wheel.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 24, 2024

Step forward, Juan Gris: the eternal third wheel in Picasso and Braque’s classic rivalry, who graduates here to the TKO champion of Cubist illusion.

From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2022

James’s third wheel, Russell Westbrook, has been a disastrous fit and a major impediment to the Lakers’ cap flexibility and trade options.

From Washington Post • Feb. 21, 2022

Playing the third wheel was Scott Disick, aka the ex of Kourtney Kardashian.

From Fox News • Dec. 20, 2021

I was just the third wheel in the room.

From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023