Dictionary

hamster wheel en · NOUN

A circular cage for a hamster or other small rodent, which rotates vertically as the animal runs at its base.
(broadly, figuratively) A monotonous, repetitive, unfulfilling activity, especially one in which no progress is achieved.
- Before the current pandemic, the rail industry appeared to be trapped on an ever-accelerating hamster wheel, trying to keep up with customer demand and political expectation on an essentially historic system itself exposed to greater impacts of climate change. 2020 May 6, Prof. Andrew McNaughton, “Time to challenge some sacred philosophies of recent years”, in Rail, page 32:
- The overall mood of this volume is one of melancholy and loss, weary resignation to one's lot—trudging round and round on the rusty hamster wheel of life. 2002 June 28, Michiko Kakutani, “Books of the Times”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Dec 2019, retrieved 23 Sep 2008:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
hamster-wheel		alternative	lexicographic
hamster wheels	Number=Plur		lexicographic

rat race (a monotonous, repetitive, unfulfilling activity) · squirrel cage (rotating cage)

(idiomatic, informal, intransitive) To cycle fruitlessly.
- I was shocked that I'd forgotten about the game that morning, but my mind had hamster-wheeled around for hours during the night, long after I should have been asleep. 2015, Patti Grayson, Ghost Most Foul, page 111:
- But my brain was hamster-wheeling on that one hopefully-not-true-but-probably-was fact. 2019, Mary Hughes, M. J. Chase, Chicago's Chosen:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
hamster wheeled	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
hamster wheeled	Tense=Past		lexicographic
hamster-wheel		alternative	lexicographic
hamster wheels	Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres		lexicographic
hamster wheeling	Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic