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Glite Dictionary
to grease the wheels

to grease the wheels

4 4.9
To make things run more smoothly by giving help or small payments
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : facilitar
  • Offering bonuses can really grease the wheels of the sales process.
  • knows how to grease the wheels

Examples

  • It'll grease the wheels with the money men.

    Speed (1994)

  • Certainly, the latter greases the wheels of the huge munitions industry, and that may be just the tip of the iceberg.

    Blog text (31)

  • So this really greases the wheels for the brand that we're seeing today.

  • It's not our job to grease the wheels for you.

    Spirits (1990)

  • So, you think maybe, uh, you know, you could help grease the wheels a little?

    Danny Collins (2015)

  • I'm just greasing the wheels.

    Leap of Faith (1992)

  • He really knows how to grease the wheels.

    Brokedown Palace (1999)

  • Can Univerve grease the wheels toward a new path?

    Blog text (7)

  • I was told to make a generous contribution to the governor's campaign fund, and maybe that would grease the wheels.

    Blog text (6)

  • This is basically private folks saying we'll jump in and grease the wheels here on a smaller focused project that will have a lot of bang for the buck.

    Blog text (1)

Antonyms

to complicate
101 4.1

To make something harder to understand or do

to hinder
75 3.6

To make it difficult for people or things to do something

How Helpful

to streamline
41 4.1
to expedite
  • Formal
45 6.5
to grease the wheels
  • Informal
4 4.9
to facilitate
  • Formal
187 4.9
to support
753 1.4
to assist
605 1.0
help
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

grease the wheels infinitive
greased the wheels past
greased the wheels past participle
greasing the wheels present participle
greases the wheels third person singular

Morphology

grease + the + wheel

The metaphor is directly motivated by the literal action—greasing wheels reduces friction so things move more smoothly—so a learner who knows 'grease' and 'wheel' can readily infer the transferred meaning 'make a process run more smoothly'. This physical-to-abstract mapping is common across languages (e.g. 'oil the wheels'), making the expression immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.

Etymology

The phrase grease the wheels comes from the simple image of putting oil or grease on a machine's wheels so they turn easily. So, to 'grease the wheels' today means to give help or a small favour that makes a process run more smoothly.