grease the wheels

grease the wheels

To facilitate, expedite, ease, or aid something or some process; to make or help things run more smoothly or more easily. Hopefully, this shift in public opinion will help grease the wheels of immigration reform. The clients have been reluctant to sign on for another year, so the boss is offering a cash incentive to help grease the wheels.
See also: grease, wheel
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

grease the wheels

Also, oil the wheels. Make things run smoothly, as in You can count on Ben to grease the wheels so we'll be waited on promptly. This metaphoric expression transfers literal lubrication to figurative. [Mid-1600s]
See also: grease, wheel
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

grease (or oil) the wheels

make things go smoothly, especially by paying the expenses.
See also: grease, wheel
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • oil the wheels
  • payment
  • grease payment
  • ease
  • give wing to
  • give wing to (something)
  • blend
  • blend (something) in
  • blend in
  • blende
References in periodicals archive
companies that had made questionable or illegal payments to foreign officials to grease the wheels of international trade.
A party atmosphere among the exhibits will "grease the wheels" of the events.
Some discovered one way to grease the wheels when knocking on the door of someone's home for a difficult interview.
Jokes, stories, puns, exercises, activities and expressions all can be integrated as needed in order to better captivate one's pupils and grease the wheels of human interaction.
SCHOOL'S OUT: St Trinian 'schoolgirls' (from left) Val Lewis, Karen Toye, Eileen Hayward, Vicky Northall and Anita Guraya at Coventry University's Frederick Lanchester Building caf; BLAST FROM THE PAST: Gail McKillop (left) Mike Shea and Carole Baldwin decided to Grease the wheels of charity FANCY DRESS: Caludon Castle School pupils (above) and teacher Jo Allmand are all dressed up LEG WAAAAAAAARGH: Store manager Alan Perkins loses his hair (from his leg) as Melinda Tompkins waxes anything but lyrical at the Matalan store
Grease the wheels for a unit about Conestogas and the 19th century settlers who populated the American West by taking your class on a Wagon Walk.
Money is what "you regrettably need to grease the wheels of everyday life."
She also installed an Office of Business Ombudsman under the Secretary of State (the Star-Ledger labeled it "essentially a business lobby") to further grease the wheels of the bureaucracy for polluters and developers, and to act as a counterweight to the DEP.
They grease the wheels. There's so much bureaucracy in these big centers.
To grease the wheels, Gateway has snapped up 20% of the web-based commerce arm of NECX for $21m in cash, with an option to buy the rest of the subsidiary, which it values at $105m in total.
Come the revolution, he can shift assets to other areas, wherever the new Menems, Cardosos and Calderas appear ready to grease the wheels of progress with new, lucrative deals at the top and the appropriate dispatch of military police to check the uncomprehending populace.
Perhaps to help grease the wheels, on 10 December 1938, Dan Burley, the drama critic for the New York Amsterdam News, published a review of the unproduced script.
They thought a little touch of levity would grease the wheels of social interchange and make hugging really happen.
In Romelu Lukaku's case his early prowess in Royal Blue has led to a prospective move to Italian champions Juventus and a new 'super' agent to grease the wheels.
On the other side of the globe, India, of course, is no stranger to political corruption and the use of money of grease the wheels of big-time contracts with foreign companies is practically standard.