Word.ws English Dictionary

take the wheel

take the wheel verb: to be in control of the steering wheel of a vehicle or a vessel.

Verb

take the wheel (third-person singular simple present takes the wheel, present participle taking the wheel, simple past took the wheel, past participle taken the wheel)

  1. To be in control of the steering wheel of a vehicle or a vessel.
    • Can you take the wheel for a minute while I take off my gloves?
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) To assume control of a situation.

Forms of take the wheel

third-person singular presenttakes the wheel
present participletaking the wheel
pasttook the wheel
past participletaken the wheel

Words formed from take the wheel

Questions about take the wheel

What does take the wheel mean?
Take the wheel means to be in control of the steering wheel of a vehicle or a vessel.
What part of speech is take the wheel?
Take the wheel is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the wheel?
The past tense of take the wheel is took the wheel.

Words near take the wheel in the dictionary

  1. take the veil
  2. take the waters
  3. take the wax out of one's ears
  4. take the weight off
  5. take the weight off one's feet
  6. take the wheel
  7. take the wind out of someone's sails
  8. take the words out of someone's mouth
  9. take the wrong turn at Albuquerque
  10. take the wrong way
  11. take time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the wheel (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-take the wheel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “take the wheel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_the_wheel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.