hamster wheel
Americannoun
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a cylindrical framework, usually within a cage, that is rotated by a hamster or other small animal running inside of it.
-
any situation that seems to be endlessly without goal or achievement.
Etymology
Origin of hamster wheel
First recorded in 1945–50
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.
The number is what gets you off the hamster wheel of anxiety every time you see another layoff headline.
From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026
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.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025
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.
From Salon • Jun. 27, 2025
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.
From BBC • May 14, 2025
Percy felt like a hellhound hamster wheel somewhere in his chest had started moving again.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
