oil the wheels

oil | American Dictionary

oil
noun
us/ɔɪl/

oilnoun (FAT)

[ C/U ]
thick, liquid fat obtained from plants which does not mix with water and is used esp. in cooking:
[ U ]vegetable/corn/olive oil
[ U ]I like oil and vinegar on my salad.
[ C ]These cookies are made with soybean and palm oils.

oilnoun (FUEL)

[ U ]
a thick, liquid substance that burns and is used as fuel or as a lubricant (= substance that helps connecting parts move easily), or the thick liquid taken from under the ground which oil, gasoline, and other products are made from:
motor oil
fuel/heating oil
Change your car’s oil every 12,000 miles.

oilnoun (LIQUID SUBSTANCE)

[ C ]
any of a number of thick liquid substances that do not dissolve in water and are used in beauty products, paints, medicines, etc.
oil
verb[ T ]
us/ɔɪl/

oilverb[T] (FUEL)

to add oil to something so it works better:
Oil the door hinges so they stop squeaking.

oilverb[T] (FAT)

to put oil on a pan or other surface that you cook on to keep things from sticking to it:
Lightly oil the grill.

oil | Business English

oil
noun[ U ]
uk /ɔɪl/us
NATURAL RESOURCES
a thick liquid that comes from under the Earth's surface and is used as a fuel and for making plastics, etc.:
More than 6,000 rigs were drilling for oil and gas.
The oil price increase is a genuine concern.
The oil exporting countries might not be able to meet rising world consumption.
oil
verb[ T ]
uk /ɔɪl/us
to put oil on something, especially a machine, to make it work more easily without sticking:
You may need to oil the wheels and joints.
 oil the wheelsinformal(USgrease the wheels)
to make it easier for something to happen, especially in business or politics:
The new proposal will oil the wheels of deal-making by ensuring that the negotiations get off to a quicker start.

Examples of oil

oil
These solutions provide qualitative insight for the process of secondary oil recovery if the polymer concentration of liquid injected into the reservoir varies with time.
In the situation where oil palm is an option, following logging, the returns per hectare of forest converted are much superior to subsidized eco-forestry.
The project also entails helping local people near the camps to plant perennials such as coffee trees and oil palms.
Unlike oils, they did not "swim" in water or burn easily.
Oil companies have visited these localities but their collecting was more in the nature of spot-checks.
Alternative specifications, such as including exploration costs into our model or different assumptions about future world oil prices, could alter our results.
Supertankers, plus offshore oil rigs, inject more than 100 million barrels of oil into the sea each year.
With steadily increasing demand for palm oil, the authors suggest that a major opportunity exists for environmentally and socially sustainable expansion of smallholder production.
While it urged the maximization of palm oil exports, the colonial government gave little encouragement to the production of by-products of palm oil for export.
For laser anemometry, a 'micro-fog lubricator' was used to atomize oil particles of approximately 2pm diameter.
It furthermore externalises social interventions to donors and their agencies, the oil companies and private consultants.
I have also made adjustments for tong oil, silk and matches.
This also happened in the late 1970s when construction of the natural gas network was delegated to the state-owned oil and gas utility.
It is desired that the operator feels the actual contact force when maneuvering the oil clay system using the force feedback system.
Prior to this, the wells of the microtitre plate had been filled with 3 drops of mineral oil.
See all examples of oil
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.