Meaning:
to initiate a chain of events necessary to help one achieve a goal
Examples:
- I contacted my brother, set the wheels in motion.
- When we set the wheels in motion, it'll be a couple of years at the outside.
- Curiosity and zest for life set the wheels in motion for a youthful life.
- As I said at the beginning of the debate, we will set the wheels in motion tomorrow.
- Claudette, let's do our best to set the wheels in motion while I'm still here.
- But their pain set the wheels in motion for our pain, and so on and on it goes.
- The Commission then brought forward a proposal on 3 December, after we had already set the wheels in motion.
- We have already set the wheels in motion with a number of initiatives, but we intend to move up another gear in June with the Small Business Act.
- I would just make one point: we cannot be 100% sure - I am not at any rate - that one only has to press a button in Ankara to set the wheels in motion in Cyprus.
- The Secretary-General had also made the request in order to set the wheels in motion for Member States to pay their contributions, since it usually took about three months before the first assessed payments were received.