[slang "big wheel" for a powerful person] A person who has an active wheel bit. "We need to find a wheel to unwedge the hung tape drives." (See wedged).

(01 Jul 2002)

Wheatstone, Charles, wheatstone's bridge, wheatworm < Prev | Next > wheel, wheelbird, wheel bit



2. To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to cause to gyrate; to make or perform in a circle. "The beetle wheels her droning flight." "Now heaven, in all her glory, shone, and rolled Her motions, as the great first mover's hand First wheeled their course." (Milton)

Origin: Wheeled; Wheeling.



A spinning wheel. See Spinning.

An instrument of torture formerly used. "His examination is like that which is made by the rack and wheel." (Addison)



A potter's wheel. See Potter. "Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels." (Jer. Xviii. 3) "Turn, turn, my wheel! This earthen jar A touch can make, a touch can mar.

<chemistry> " (Longfellow) A firework which, while burning, is caused to revolve on an axis by the reaction of the escaping gases.

The burden or refrain of a song.

"This meaning has a low degree of authority, but is supposed from the context in the few cases where the word is found." "You must sing a-down a-down, An you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it!" (Shak)

3. A bicycle or a tricycle; a velocipede.


5. A turn revolution; rotation; compass. "According to the common vicissitude and wheel of things, the proud and the insolent, after long trampling upon others, come at length to be trampled upon themselves." (South) "[He] throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel." (Milton) A wheel within a wheel, or Wheels within wheels, a complication of circumstances, motives, etc. Balance wheel. Bevel wheel, Brake wheel, Cam wheel, Fifth wheel, Overshot wheel, Spinning wheel, etc. See Bevel, Brake, etc. Core wheel.


<physics> A stitch resembling a spider's web, worked into the material, and not over an open space.



(01 Mar 1998)

Wheatstone, Charles, wheatstone's bridge, wheatworm, wheel < Prev | Next > wheelbird, wheel bit, wheelchairs
