Word.ws English Dictionary

spinning one's wheels

spinning one's wheels is the present participle and gerund of spin one's wheels.

Meaning of spin one's wheels

Verb

spin one's wheels (third-person singular simple present spins one's wheels, present participle spinning one's wheels, simple past and past participle spun one's wheels)

  1. (idiomatic) To make no progress despite making an effort; to get nowhere.
    • I've been spinning my wheels on this problem all week, with nothing to show for it.

Questions about spinning one's wheels

What is spinning one's wheels the present participle and gerund of?
Spinning one's wheels is the present participle and gerund of spin one's wheels.

Words near spinning one's wheels in the dictionary

  1. spinning jennies
  2. spinning jenny
  3. spinning mule
  4. spinning mules
  5. spinning off
  6. spinning one's wheels
  7. spinning out
  8. spinning plates
  9. spinning rod
  10. spinning rods
  11. spinning round

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spinning one's wheels (page history and authors); spin one's wheels (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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