A metal-hubbed wheel of great strength and elasticity, esp. adapted for artillery carriages and motor cars. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. A kind of heavily built dished wheel with a long axle box, used on gun carriages, usually having 14 spokes and 7 felloes; hence, a wheel of similar construction for use on automobiles, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

1. (Horology) (a) A wheel which regulates the beats or pulses of a watch or chronometer, answering to the pendulum of a clock; -- often called simply a balance. (b) A ratchet-shaped scape wheel, which in some watches is acted upon by the axis of the balance wheel proper (in those watches called a balance). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mach.) A wheel which imparts regularity to the movements of any engine or machine; a fly wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A water wheel, on which the stream of water strikes neither so high as in the overshot wheel, nor so low as in the undershot, but generally at about half the height of the wheel, being kept in contact with it by the breasting. The water acts on the float boards partly by impulse, partly by its weight. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A wheel without teeth, used to turn a similar one by the friction of bristles or something brushlike or soft attached to the circumference. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A circular revolving brush used by turners, lapidaries, silversmiths, etc., for polishing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. the type of wheel used on a cart; it typically has wooden spokes and a metal rim. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. an acrobatic maneuver in which the arms and legs are outstretched like the spokes of a wheel, and the body is turned sideways through one or more revolutions, by first touching the hands and then the feet to the ground, in rapid succession so as to mimic the rolling of a wheel; in the course of this feat, the person performing it is alternately upright and upside-down. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

3. a silver dollar; a dollar made of silver. [ Colloq. ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. i. 1 to perform a cartwheel{ 2 }.
Syn. -- do cartwheels. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

A flanged wheel of a railway car or truck. [ 1913 Webster ]

See catherine wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ So called from St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is represented with a wheel, in allusion to her martyrdom. ] 1. (Geoth.Arth.) Same as Rose window and Wheel window. Called also Catherine-wheel window. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Pyrotechny) A revolving piece of fireworks resembling in form the window of the same name. [ Written also Catharine wheel. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A chain pulley, or sprocket wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An inversion of the chain pump, by which it becomes a motor driven by water. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A wheel with cogs or teeth; a gear wheel. See Illust. of Gearing. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. (Mil.) To cause to wheel or turn in an opposite direction. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The wheel in a clock which regulates the number of strokes. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Named from its resemblance to a crown. ] (Mach.) A wheel with cogs or teeth set at right angles to its plane; -- called also a contrate wheel or face wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To encircle. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The rotating wheel in an escapement mechanism which has notches that are periodically engaged and disengaged by the anchor. [ PJC ]

An amusement device consisting of a giant power-driven vertically oriented steel wheel, revolvable on its horizontal stationary axle, and carrying a number of balanced passenger cars or open seats around its rim; the seats are suspended so as to remain horizontal as the wheel rotates, and, depending on the size of the wheel, the passengers when they reach the top may have a grand vista of the surrounding area; -- so called after G. W. G. Ferris, American engineer, who erected the first of its kind for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Ferris wheels are often found at traveling fairs and at permanent amusement parks. The Reisenrad in Vienna is one of the world's largest and most famous Ferris wheels. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

n. An annual of the central U. S. (Gaillardia pulchella) having showy long-stalked yellow flower heads marked with scarlet or purple in the center.
Syn. -- blanket flower, Indian blanket, Gaillardia pulchella. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A heavy wheel or disk which stores kinetic energy by rotating on a shaft, and by its momentum smoothes the operation of a reciprocating engine by reducing fluctuations of speed. It is used in certain types of machinery, such as automobiles. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

☞ Flywheels rotating at high speed have also been proposed as a means to store kinetic energy for use as a low-polluting source of energy in vehicles. [ PJC ]

a. Having four wheels. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A vehicle having four wheels; specifically, a hackney carriage with four weels. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Mach.) A clutch fitted in the rear hub of a cycle, which engages the rear sprocket with the rear wheel when the pedals are rotated forwards, but permits the rear wheel to run on free from the rear sprocket when the pedals are stopped or rotated backwards. Freewheelcycles are usually fitted with hub brakes or rim brakes, operated by back pedaling. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. 1. (a) Of a freewheel cycle, to run on while the pedals are held still. (b) Of a person, to ride a cycle of this manner; to coast in a vehicle having a freewheel. To ride a freewheel cycle. [ wns=2 ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. (Mach.) To operate like a freewheel, so that one part moves freely over another which normally moves with it; -- said of a clutch. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

3. To act without controls, external or internal; to live freely, independently, and without concern; -- of people. [ wns=1 ] [ PJC ]

n. Someone acting freely or even irresponsibly.
Syn. -- free agent, free spirit. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adj. Acting heedless of consequences; acting without controls, external or internal; as, freewheeling foolishness.
Syn. -- careless, irresponsible, reckless. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

(Shoemaking) A tool for ornamenting the edge of a sole. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Mach.) Any wheel worked by hand; esp., one the rim of which serves as the handle by which a valve, car brake, or other part is adjusted. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To encircle. [ R. ] Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A program that delivers hot meals to persons, such as the elderly or disabled, who are confined to their homes and unable to cook for themselves; also, the meals thus delivered. Such programs are usually conducted by governmental or charitable organizations. [ PJC ]

n. a waterwheel that is used to drive machinery in a mill. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

(Mech.) A form of impulse turbine or water wheel, consisting of a row of double cup-shaped buckets arranged round the rim of a wheel and actuated by one or more jets of water playing into the cups at high velocity. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) A wheel, usually with radial handles projecting from the rim, for traversing the saddle of a machine tool, esp. an automatic machine tool, by hand. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Horol.) The wheel in an escapement (as of a clock or a watch) into the teeth of which the pallets play. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a paddle wheel on each side; -- said of steam vessels; as, a side-wheel steamer. [ 1913 Webster ]

. same as Split pulley. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

[ Etymology of sprocket is uncertain. ] (Mach.) Same as Chain wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a paddle wheel at the stern; as, a stern-wheel steamer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A steamboat having a stern wheel instead of side wheels. [ Colloq. U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

. A wheel used for measuring, by its motion when submerged, the velocity of flowing water; a current wheel. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (a) A worm or worm wheel; a tangent screw. (b) A wheel with tangent spokes. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Mach.) (a) A locomotive driving wheel which acts by friction adhesion to a smooth track. (b) A smooth-rimmed friction wheel for giving motion to an endless link belt or the like. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a pair of small wheels attached to the rear of a bicycle to keep the bicycle upright; -- used to assist those, especially small children, learning how to ride a bicycle. [ PJC ]

. (Mach.) A circular plate or a cross, with two or more cross grooves intersecting at the center, used on the end of a shaft to transmit motion to another shaft not in line with the first. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A wheel turned by persons or animals, by treading, climbing, or pushing with the feet, upon its periphery or face. See Treadmill. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Any wheel for propelling machinery or for other purposes, that is made to rotate by the direct action of water; -- called an overshot wheel when the water is applied at the top, an undershot wheel when at the bottom, a breast wheel when at an intermediate point; other forms are called reaction wheel, vortex wheel, turbine wheel, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The paddle wheel of a steam vessel. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A wheel for raising water; a noria, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. wheel, hweol, AS. hweól, hweogul, hweowol; akin to D. wiel, Icel. hvēl, Gr. ky`klos, Skr. cakra; cf. Icel. hjōl, Dan. hiul, Sw. hjul. √218. Cf. Cycle, Cyclopedia. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A circular frame turning about an axis; a rotating disk, whether solid, or a frame composed of an outer rim, spokes or radii, and a central hub or nave, in which is inserted the axle, -- used for supporting and conveying vehicles, in machinery, and for various purposes; as, the wheel of a wagon, of a locomotive, of a mill, of a watch, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

The gasping charioteer beneath the wheel
Of his own car. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any instrument having the form of, or chiefly consisting of, a wheel. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

(a) A spinning wheel. See under Spinning. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) An instrument of torture formerly used. [ 1913 Webster ]

His examination is like that which is made by the rack and wheel. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ This mode of torture is said to have been first employed in Germany, in the fourteenth century. The criminal was laid on a cart wheel with his legs and arms extended, and his limbs in that posture were fractured with an iron bar. In France, where its use was restricted to the most atrocious crimes, the criminal was first laid on a frame of wood in the form of a St. Andrew's cross, with grooves cut transversely in it above and below the knees and elbows, and the executioner struck eight blows with an iron bar, so as to break the limbs in those places, sometimes finishing by two or three blows on the chest or stomach, which usually put an end to the life of the criminal, and were hence called coups-de-grace -- blows of mercy. The criminal was then unbound, and laid on a small wheel, with his face upward, and his arms and legs doubled under him, there to expire, if he had survived the previous treatment. Brande. [ 1913 Webster ]

(c) (Naut.) A circular frame having handles on the periphery, and an axle which is so connected with the tiller as to form a means of controlling the rudder for the purpose of steering. [ 1913 Webster ]

(d) (Pottery) A potter's wheel. See under Potter. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. Jer. xviii. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

Turn, turn, my wheel! This earthen jar
A touch can make, a touch can mar. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

(e) (Pyrotechny) A firework which, while burning, is caused to revolve on an axis by the reaction of the escaping gases. [ 1913 Webster ]

(f) (Poetry) The burden or refrain of a song. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ “This meaning has a low degree of authority, but is supposed from the context in the few cases where the word is found.” Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

You must sing a-down a-down,
An you call him a-down-a.
O, how the wheel becomes it! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

3. A bicycle or a tricycle; a velocipede. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form; a disk; an orb. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A turn revolution; rotation; compass. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ He ] throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

A wheel within a wheel, or
Wheels within wheels, a complication of circumstances, motives, etc. --
Balance wheel. See in the Vocab. --
Bevel wheel,
Brake wheel,
Cam wheel,
Fifth wheel,
Overshot wheel,
Spinning wheel, etc. See under Bevel, Brake, etc. --
Core wheel. (Mach.) (a) A mortise gear. (b) A wheel having a rim perforated to receive wooden cogs; the skeleton of a mortise gear. --
Measuring wheel, an odometer, or perambulator. --
Wheel and axle (Mech.), one of the elementary machines or mechanical powers, consisting of a wheel fixed to an axle, and used for raising great weights, by applying the power to the circumference of the wheel, and attaching the weight, by a rope or chain, to that of the axle. Called also axis in peritrochio, and perpetual lever, -- the principle of equilibrium involved being the same as in the lever, while its action is continuous. See Mechanical powers, under Mechanical. --
Wheel animal, or
Wheel animalcule (Zool.), any one of numerous species of rotifers having a ciliated disk at the anterior end. --
Wheel barometer. (Physics) See under Barometer. --
Wheel boat, a boat with wheels, to be used either on water or upon inclined planes or railways. --
Wheel bug (Zool.), a large North American hemipterous insect (Prionidus cristatus) which sucks the blood of other insects. So named from the curious shape of the prothorax. --
Wheel carriage, a carriage moving on wheels. --
Wheel chains, or
Wheel ropes (Naut.), the chains or ropes connecting the wheel and rudder. --
Wheel cutter, a machine for shaping the cogs of gear wheels; a gear cutter. --
Wheel horse, one of the horses nearest to the wheels, as opposed to a leader, or forward horse; -- called also wheeler. --
Wheel lathe, a lathe for turning railway-car wheels. --
Wheel lock. (a) A letter lock. See under Letter. (b) A kind of gunlock in which sparks were struck from a flint, or piece of iron pyrites, by a revolving wheel. (c) A kind of brake a carriage. --
Wheel ore (Min.), a variety of bournonite so named from the shape of its twin crystals. See Bournonite. --
Wheel pit (Steam Engine), a pit in the ground, in which the lower part of the fly wheel runs. --
Wheel plow, or
Wheel plough, a plow having one or two wheels attached, to render it more steady, and to regulate the depth of the furrow. --
Wheel press, a press by which railway-car wheels are forced on, or off, their axles. --
Wheel race, the place in which a water wheel is set. --
Wheel rope (Naut.), a tiller rope. See under Tiller. --
Wheel stitch (Needlework), a stitch resembling a spider's web, worked into the material, and not over an open space. Caulfeild & S. (Dict. of Needlework). --
Wheel tree (Bot.), a tree (Aspidosperma excelsum) of Guiana, which has a trunk so curiously fluted that a transverse section resembles the hub and spokes of a coarsely made wheel. See Paddlewood. --
Wheel urchin (Zool.), any sea urchin of the genus Rotula having a round, flat shell. --
Wheel window (Arch.), a circular window having radiating mullions arranged like the spokes of a wheel. Cf. Rose window, under Rose. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Wheeled p. pr. & vb. n. Wheeling. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To convey on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle; as, to wheel a load of hay or wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

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.” Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now heaven, in all her glory, shone, and rolled
Her motions, as the great first mover's hand
First wheeled their course. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To turn on an axis, or as on an axis; to revolve; to more about; to rotate; to gyrate. [ 1913 Webster ]

The moon carried about the earth always shows the same
face to us, not once wheeling upon her own center. Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To change direction, as if revolving upon an axis or pivot; to turn; as, the troops wheeled to the right. [ 1913 Webster ]

Being able to advance no further, they are in a fair way to
wheel about to the other extreme. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To go round in a circuit; to fetch a compass. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then wheeling down the steep of heaven he flies. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To roll forward. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thunder mixed with hail,
Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky,
And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The tire of a wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]