"Spinning like a squirrel in a wheel" is a figurative expression that is applied mainly to situations when a person is very busy with a variety of activities. However, it also has a completely literal meaning.
The real basis of expression
The fact is that breeders of various rodents, and first of all, squirrels, quite often use for them a peculiar design in the form of a wheel made of wire. The animal is placed inside the wheel and, moving forward, by the weight of its body rotates the wheel around its axis, which necessitates further movement in an attempt to climb onto the upper part of the structure. Therefore, in such a wheel, the animal can run for a long time and, as a rule, interrupts its run only when it is very tired. At this point, it acquires the typical tired appearance of a creature after prolonged physical exertion, which became the basis for the emergence of the expression "spinning like a squirrel in a wheel."
Using Expression
As a result, this phrase has become widely used in a figurative sense - to refer to a person who is always very busy. In most cases, the expression "spinning like a squirrel in a wheel" also implies that such a person has obligations to do many different things at the same time.
Often this expression means only the degree of employment, but sometimes it acquires an additional semantic connotation: it is used if such significant efforts do not bring tangible results, that is, they are fruitless. Such a narrower meaning, as well as the main content of the expression, is based on the primary source - a real squirrel running in a wheel: after all, the very nature of this structure implies that it cannot achieve a specific goal, that is, climb into the top of the wheel.
One of the first to use this expression as applied to a person was the famous Russian writer, author-fabulist Ivan Krylov. It appeared in a fable written by him in 1833, which was called “Squirrel”. It told about a squirrel who spent whole days running in a wheel, and was sure that she was constantly busy with a very important business. This is how she answered the question of the thrush, which, flying by, asked her what exactly she was doing.
Nevertheless, as in most of Krylov's fables, the moral of the work, voiced by the thrush at its end, contained the exact opposite conclusion. He formulated it as follows:
“Look at another businessman:
He bothers, rushes about, everyone marvels at him;
He seems to be torn from his skin, Yes, only everything does not move forward, Like a Squirrel in a wheel."
Moreover, this figurative expression is not a rigid structure and has several formulation options. So, it can be found in the form: "Spinning like a squirrel in a wheel", "Spinning like a squirrel in a wheel" or simply "Like a squirrel in a wheel". They all have the same meaning.
