set the wheels in motion
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To start a process or take the first steps towards a goal
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Bắt đầu một quá trình hoặc thực hiện bước đầu tiên hướng tới mục tiêu
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to start the wheels turning
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
MADRID – On November 6, either Barack ~ Obama or Mitt ~ Romney will emerge victorious after an exhausting electoral race, setting the wheels in motion for the coming four years.
The wheels have already been set in motion.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “set the wheels in motion” mean?
To start a process or take the first steps towards a goal Literally: to start the wheels turning
Is “set the wheels in motion” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.