training wheels en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈtreɪnɪŋ ˌ(h)wilz/ (General-American)
- /ˈtɹeɪnɪŋ wiːlz/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
From training wheel + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum and regular plurals of nouns).
Meanings
-
(figuratively, plural, plural-only) Anything designed to make something easier for a novice.
Kick off the training wheels, Corporal. He's good to go.
2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Arrival:Yet as with Booksmart, the summer's earlier riff on that Apatovian classic, there are times when Good Boys feels a little too nice to actually be uproarious. In more ways than one, it's the training wheels for a better comedy—a slightly edgier and funnier one.
2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2021:
-
(form-of, plural) plural of training wheel
form of training wheel
Deriveds
Translations (3)
pl pomoc (anything designed to make something easier for a novice) · fi apuvälineet (anything designed to make something easier for a novice) · fi apupyörät (anything designed to make something easier for a novice)