squirrel cage
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English
Alternative forms
Noun
squirrel cage (plural squirrel cages)
- A circular cage for a squirrel or other small animal, which rotates vertically as the animal runs at the bottom.
- (figuratively, by extension) A tedious, repetitive, unfulfilling activity or situation, especially one in which no progress is achieved.
- 1944, B. R. McElderry Jr., “The Grapes of Wrath: In the Light of Modern Critical Theory”, in College English, volume 5, number 6, page 312:
- The poor stuggle for riches, success, power; but those who achieve them die out. Life is, then a sort of squirrel cage or treadmill.
- 1986, Madison Smartt Bell, Straight Cut (2011 Open Road Media edition), →ISBN, (Google Preview):
- So maybe I wouldn't even call Kevin. . . . Or I could just see him socially. . . . Or I could . . . . Or, or, or. . . . I was still running around in this squirrel cage when the big gray poisonous cloud that usually covers New York materialized just off the right wing.
- (engineering) Any other device, such as a fan or rotor, that resembles a squirrel cage in form.
- 1996 May 19, Edward R. Lipinski, “Home Clinic: Time to Inspect Air-Conditioners”, in New York Times, retrieved 13 February 2014:
- A blower, in the shape of a drum fan (also called a "squirrel cage"), pulls the warm humid air from the room across the coils.
