Grease the wheels

Question

Can you tell me what the phrase "grease the wheels" means? Is it a common phrase? Thanks.

in Spanish or English Luissito - pacofinkler, Dec 12, 2014

Answer 1

Being from Louisiana, to me it means to pay someone a bribe to get what you want.

Yes, you can grease the wheels by greasing someone's palm. :) - bosquederoble, Dec 12, 2014

Yep! That's it. - rac1, Dec 12, 2014

:) - ian-hill, Dec 12, 2014

yep! - pacofinkler, Dec 12, 2014

hmm.. - Joydeep_Singh, Dec 13, 2014

I didn't know this one :) - Joydeep_Singh, Dec 13, 2014

To give someone a "backhander" - is another one Jimmy. - ian-hill, Dec 13, 2014

Answer 2

Money greases the wheels of corruption.

El dinero engrasa las ruedas de corrupción.

El dinero.. ;) - txustaboy, Dec 12, 2014

Por Supuesto amigo. - ian-hill, Dec 12, 2014

In ordinary speech is in not uncommon to drop the "el" - pacofinkler, Dec 12, 2014

You could say: "Dinero, engrasa las ruedas de la corrupción" - txustaboy, Dec 13, 2014

Answer 3

Literalmente: Engrasar/lubricar las ruedas

Normalmente quiere decir algo como:

Preparar/allanar el camino, facilitar, hacer que cosas sucedan fácilmente

Yes, often implies bribing somebody to make things go faster.. - annierats, Dec 12, 2014

Answer 4

In my opinion you, pgranley are correct from a purely engineering view, but beyond that "greasing the wheels" is idiomatic in the respect of gaining consensus to do as you plan to do. All to do with intercompany politics.

Answer 5

It's fairly common. It means to take initial steps that are needed to complete another more difficult task...

The expression comes from the field of mechanical engineering, I believe, where there are a lot of wheels, etc. The grease is meant to reduce friction on the wheel, so that the will work properly.

Answer 6

In the way that pgranley said, in Spanish we said "Engrasando la maquinaria o la maquina"