break the wheel

English

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.

Verb

break the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks the wheel, present participle breaking the wheel, simple past and past participle broke the wheel)

1. (idiomatic) To end a pattern of oppression, inequality, injustice, or abuse.
   • 2020, Carol Todd, "Time to change Canada's business model: UFCW", Regina Leader-Post, 4 September 2020, page NP7:

     The head of one of Canada's largest unions says it's time to break the wheel and change the way businesses are operated.

   • 2023, Andrea Burgos-Mascarell, "Out with the Old: New Feminist Religions in Parable of the Sower and the Gilded Ones", in The Role of Religion in Shaping and Reshaping Inclusive and Exclusive Communities in Literature (ed. Kamelia Talebian Sedehi), page 96:

     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.

   • 2023, Peter Čuroš, "Educating into Aware Subjects Instead of Unaware Objects", in Biopolitics and Structure in Legal Education (eds. Luca Siliquini-Cinelli & Thomas Giddens), page 24:

     I do not see any possibility for breaking the wheel of the prevailing capitalist and liberal ideology or any kind of ideology.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:break the wheel.
2. (idiomatic) To instigate or enact a major change; to revolutionize; to shake up.
   • 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:

     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).

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:break the wheel.

See also

• break the cycle