"break the wheel" meaning in English

See break the wheel in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: breaks the wheel [present, singular, third-person], breaking the wheel [participle, present], broke the wheel [past], broken the wheel [participle, past]
Etymology: Presumably inspired by a scene in the episode "Hardhome" (2015) of Game of Thrones, in which Daenerys Targaryen, reflecting on her plan to reclaim the Iron Throne, vows to "break the wheel" of oppression and war. Head templates: {{en-verb|break<,,broke,broken> the wheel}} break the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks the wheel, present participle breaking the wheel, simple past broke the wheel, past participle broken the wheel)
  1. (idiomatic) To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): A Song of Ice and Fire
    Sense id: en-break_the_wheel-en-verb-N8AGk6YQ Disambiguation of A Song of Ice and Fire: 57 43 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 49 51 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 51 49
  2. (idiomatic) To instigate or enact a major change; to revolutionize; to shake up. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-break_the_wheel-en-verb-4rYXqSre Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 49 51 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 51 49
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: break the cycle
{
  "etymology_text": "Presumably inspired by a scene in the episode \"Hardhome\" (2015) of Game of Thrones, in which Daenerys Targaryen, reflecting on her plan to reclaim the Iron Throne, vows to \"break the wheel\" of oppression and war.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "break<,,broke,broken> the wheel"
      },
      "expansion": "break the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks the wheel, present participle breaking the wheel, simple past broke the wheel, past participle broken the wheel)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "break the cycle"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 43",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "A Song of Ice and Fire",
          "orig": "en:A Song of Ice and Fire",
          "parents": [
            "American fiction",
            "Fantasy",
            "Literature",
            "Fiction",
            "United States",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Artistic works",
            "North America",
            "Genres",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Art",
            "America",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Earth",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020, Carol Todd, \"Time to change Canada's business model: UFCW\", Regina Leader-Post, 4 September 2020, page NP7",
          "text": "The head of one of Canada's largest unions says it's time to break the wheel and change the way businesses are operated."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Andrea Burgos-Mascarell, “Out with the Old: New Feminist Religions in Parable of the Sower and the Gilded Ones”, in Kamelia Talebian Sedehi, editor, The Role of Religion in Shaping and Reshaping Inclusive and Exclusive Communities in Literature, page 96:",
          "text": "Finally, the fact that both protagonists are teenagers is worth considering not only as a mere feature of the dystopian fiction subgenre, but as a representation of the power of the younger generations in breaking the wheel and transforming society not only when they grow up and become adults, but from today.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Peter Čuroš, “Educating into Aware Subjects Instead of Unaware Objects”, in Luca Siliquini-Cinelli, Thomas Giddens, editors, Biopolitics and Structure in Legal Education, page 24:",
          "text": "I do not see any possibility for breaking the wheel of the prevailing capitalist and liberal ideology or any kind of ideology.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_the_wheel-en-verb-N8AGk6YQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "end",
          "end"
        ],
        [
          "pattern",
          "pattern"
        ],
        [
          "oppression",
          "oppression"
        ],
        [
          "inequality",
          "inequality"
        ],
        [
          "injustice",
          "injustice"
        ],
        [
          "abuse",
          "abuse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019, Emma Fàbrega-Domènech, \"Problematizing the ‘Good Life’ on the Costa del Sol: Detecting Diversity in Privileged Experiences of Northern European Migrant Retirees\", QuAderns, Number 35, page 71",
          "text": "Cassandra a woman in her late 60’s was a hairdresser and owner of her own beauty salon in the UK. However, she felt like she was working long hours and never had time for herself. She describes coming to Spain as a way to ‘break the wheel’ and dedicating time to what she loves, which involves a variety of sports, socializing, and spending time with her mother (Interview March 31st 2019)."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Arti Sharma & Mohammad Salim, \"Polar Code Appropriateness for Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Use Cases of 5G Systems\", International Journal of Networked and Distributed Computing, Volume 7, Number 3, page 95",
          "text": "Polar codes break the wheel in channel coding area with its unconventional perspective of code construction than that of the traditional codes and become a youngest contender in the in the 5G race."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Paul Boyé, \"The Figure of Inhumanism: Contemporary Speculative Philosophy in the Posthuman Condition\", thesis submitted to the University of Western Australia, pages 43-44",
          "text": "This is an example of Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' breaking the wheel of empiricism and rationalism, inaugurating a new form of transcendental regulation that is to say weak correlationism."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To instigate or enact a major change; to revolutionize; to shake up."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_the_wheel-en-verb-4rYXqSre",
      "links": [
        [
          "instigate",
          "instigate"
        ],
        [
          "enact",
          "enact"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change"
        ],
        [
          "revolutionize",
          "revolutionize"
        ],
        [
          "shake up",
          "shake up"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To instigate or enact a major change; to revolutionize; to shake up."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Daenerys Targaryen",
    "Game of Thrones",
    "Hardhome",
    "Iron Throne (A Song of Ice and Fire)"
  ],
  "word": "break the wheel"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:A Song of Ice and Fire"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Presumably inspired by a scene in the episode \"Hardhome\" (2015) of Game of Thrones, in which Daenerys Targaryen, reflecting on her plan to reclaim the Iron Throne, vows to \"break the wheel\" of oppression and war.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken the wheel",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "break<,,broke,broken> the wheel"
      },
      "expansion": "break the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks the wheel, present participle breaking the wheel, simple past broke the wheel, past participle broken the wheel)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "break the cycle"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020, Carol Todd, \"Time to change Canada's business model: UFCW\", Regina Leader-Post, 4 September 2020, page NP7",
          "text": "The head of one of Canada's largest unions says it's time to break the wheel and change the way businesses are operated."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Andrea Burgos-Mascarell, “Out with the Old: New Feminist Religions in Parable of the Sower and the Gilded Ones”, in Kamelia Talebian Sedehi, editor, The Role of Religion in Shaping and Reshaping Inclusive and Exclusive Communities in Literature, page 96:",
          "text": "Finally, the fact that both protagonists are teenagers is worth considering not only as a mere feature of the dystopian fiction subgenre, but as a representation of the power of the younger generations in breaking the wheel and transforming society not only when they grow up and become adults, but from today.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, Peter Čuroš, “Educating into Aware Subjects Instead of Unaware Objects”, in Luca Siliquini-Cinelli, Thomas Giddens, editors, Biopolitics and Structure in Legal Education, page 24:",
          "text": "I do not see any possibility for breaking the wheel of the prevailing capitalist and liberal ideology or any kind of ideology.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "end",
          "end"
        ],
        [
          "pattern",
          "pattern"
        ],
        [
          "oppression",
          "oppression"
        ],
        [
          "inequality",
          "inequality"
        ],
        [
          "injustice",
          "injustice"
        ],
        [
          "abuse",
          "abuse"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019, Emma Fàbrega-Domènech, \"Problematizing the ‘Good Life’ on the Costa del Sol: Detecting Diversity in Privileged Experiences of Northern European Migrant Retirees\", QuAderns, Number 35, page 71",
          "text": "Cassandra a woman in her late 60’s was a hairdresser and owner of her own beauty salon in the UK. However, she felt like she was working long hours and never had time for herself. She describes coming to Spain as a way to ‘break the wheel’ and dedicating time to what she loves, which involves a variety of sports, socializing, and spending time with her mother (Interview March 31st 2019)."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Arti Sharma & Mohammad Salim, \"Polar Code Appropriateness for Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Use Cases of 5G Systems\", International Journal of Networked and Distributed Computing, Volume 7, Number 3, page 95",
          "text": "Polar codes break the wheel in channel coding area with its unconventional perspective of code construction than that of the traditional codes and become a youngest contender in the in the 5G race."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Paul Boyé, \"The Figure of Inhumanism: Contemporary Speculative Philosophy in the Posthuman Condition\", thesis submitted to the University of Western Australia, pages 43-44",
          "text": "This is an example of Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' breaking the wheel of empiricism and rationalism, inaugurating a new form of transcendental regulation that is to say weak correlationism."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To instigate or enact a major change; to revolutionize; to shake up."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "instigate",
          "instigate"
        ],
        [
          "enact",
          "enact"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change"
        ],
        [
          "revolutionize",
          "revolutionize"
        ],
        [
          "shake up",
          "shake up"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To instigate or enact a major change; to revolutionize; to shake up."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Daenerys Targaryen",
    "Game of Thrones",
    "Hardhome",
    "Iron Throne (A Song of Ice and Fire)"
  ],
  "word": "break the wheel"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.