square wheel

collocation in English

meaningsofsquareandwheel

These words are often used together. Click on the links below to explore the meanings. Or,see other collocations withwheel.
square
adjective
uk
/skweər/us
/skwer/
having the shape of ...
See more atsquare
wheel
noun
uk
/wiːl/us
/wiːl/
a circular object connected at the centre to a bar, used for making vehicles or parts of ...
See more atwheel

(Definition ofsquareandwheelfrom theCambridge English Dictionary© Cambridge University Press)

Examplesofsquare wheel

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
Asquarewheelcan roll smoothly if the ground consists of evenly shaped inverted catenaries of the right size and curvature.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Somebody objected that a car cannot move with square wheels.
From theCambridge English Corpus
One such example is the removal of all of the patterned body skirts, combined with the replacement of thesquarewheelarches with non-patterned round ones.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
I hope that it will have round wheels and not square wheels, and that it will go forward with acclamation and success.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
I cannot help observing, in this context, that a scheme of devolution with square wheels might actually have certain advantages.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
I suppose it is slightly better than a coach with square wheels, but that was the forefront of my case.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
It will not work, not because of want of popular support, but simply because, to use a phrase, it has got square wheels.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
Are there square wheels on the coaches?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
While literal square wheels exist, a more common use is as a metaphor meaning stereotypically bad or nave engineering (see reinventing the wheel).
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
This has square wheels, linked together and offset by 22.5, rolling on a flat surface.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
Want to learn more?
Go to the definition ofsquare
Go to the definition ofwheel
See other collocations withwheel