reinventing the wheel
Speech parts
1. reinventing the wheel - Noun
2. reinventing the wheel - Verb
Meaning
reinventing the wheel (uncountable)
The action of taking the effort to devise a solution to a problem, unaware of the fact that someone else has already devised the same solution to the same problem.
reinventing the wheel
present participle of reinvent the wheel.
Examples
The good thing about reinventing the wheel is that you can get a round one.
It's a bit like being a mad scientist. You mix a bit of this with some of that. You're never sure what's going to happen. But I'd rather blow up the laboratory than keep reinventing the wheel.
Reinventing the wheel is sometimes the right thing, when the result is the radial tire.
For me, each film, each script is like a little journey in itself, and I'm reinventing the wheel. It's like, 'How do I make this film?' That's part of the pleasure, and that's why I'm not a normal professional director.