behind the wheel

idiomatic phrase

: in the act of driving

I was nervous my first time behind the wheel.

He urged drivers to stop and rest if they feel tired behind the wheel.

—Yaron Steinbuch

… will start enforcing a requirement for commercial truck drivers travelling between provinces to track their hours behind the wheel …

—Karina Zapata

Examples of behind the wheel in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Encouraging multitasking behind the wheel turns these features into convenience factors, rather than the safety precautions they were intended to be. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 5 Dec. 2025

Over the summer, the company started manual testing before moving to testing autonomous vehicles with a specialist behind the wheel. —Alexandra Simon, CBS News, 3 Dec. 2025

Soon social media was flooded with photos of the president smiling, behind the wheel of the F-150 Lightning. —Jamie L. Lareau, Freep.com, 3 Dec. 2025

The wins have been hard fought, but, fortunately for McLaren, Brown has been bringing plenty of fight for the majority of his 54 years, from a challenging childhood in Southern California to his own competitive career behind the wheel. —Viju Mathew, Robb Report, 1 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for behind the wheel

• automobile
• periosteal
• peritoneal
• abele
• alkyl
• anneal
• appeal
• cartwheel
• conceal
• congeal
• coquille
• corneal