Forms: 1 hweoʓol, -ul, -el, hweowol, -ul, hweowl, hweohl, 1–3 hweol, hwel, 3–4 weole, wel, 3–6 whel, 3–7 whele, 4–5 wele, (whiel), north. quele, 4–6 Sc. quhele, 4–7 wheele, Sc. quheill, (1 hwiol, 3 wheol, weol, ȝweol, ȝwele, 4 wheole, woele, hueȝel, whewel, north. quel, quile, quil, Sc. quhel, 5 wheyle, whelle, whyll, wyle, north. quheyll, qweyll, qwell, 5–6 wheylle, north. qwhele, qwele, quheil(e, quhell, 6 wheill, whefyll, wheale, whieale, weil, whyl(l)e, qwyl, Sc. vheill, vhel(e, while, 7 Sc. quheele), 4– wheel. [OE. hweoʓol, hweowol, hwéol = OFris. *hwêl (EFris. weel, wêil, NFris. well), (M)LG. wêl, (M)Du. wiel (whence G. wiel in technical senses), ON. hjól (Sw., Da. hjul), hvél:—OTeut. *χwe(ʓ)ula-, *χweχula-:—Indo-Eur. *qweqwlo- repr. by Skr. cakrá- circle, wheel, Zend caχrəm, Gr. κύκλος; reduplicated f. *qwelo-: *qwolo-, repr. by ON. hvel, hvela (Norw. kvel), OPruss. kelan wheel, Gr. πόλος axis, pole, plowed-up land, L. colus distaff, OSl. kolo wheel; the root meaning of qwel- is ‘to turn’ (cf. Skr. cárati to move, Zend čaraiti ‘versatur,’ Gr. πέλεσθαι to be in motion, L. colere to till, in-quil-īnus sojourner).]
I. 1. A circular frame of wood, metal, or other hard substance (sometimes in the form of a solid disk, but usually of a ring (rim or felloe) with spokes radiating from the central part or nave) attached or capable of being attached at its center to an axle around which it revolves; used, in many different forms and sizes, for communicating, facilitating, or equalizing motion, and for other purposes.
a. In a vehicle, plow, locomotive engine, etc., each of two or more such appliances which support it and, by rolling upon the ground or other surface, enable it to move along with the least possible friction.
At or in the wheel, of horses, next to the carriage, in the place of the wheelers (see WHEELER 3) as opposed to the leaders. On the wheel, on wheels, riding in wheeled vehicles. (See also 12 b.)
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 7. Swa swa on wænes eaxe hwearfiað þa hweol.
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 26 Dec., 8. An pleʓende cild arn under wænes hweowol ond wearð sona dead.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 270. Se firmamentum went on ðam twam steorran swa swa hweoʓel [v.rr. hweoʓul, hweowul] tyrnð on eaxe.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 356. Elies hweoles þet weren furene.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8437. An quointe tour hii lete make … Vpe four woeles … it was idriue.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 21267. I sal tell … Quat mai be yock, and quat quele [Fairf. quile, Trin. wheel] mai be, Bridel quat es, and quat axeltre.
c. 1315. Shoreham, IV. 223. Me makeþ prynses Þe host to gouerni, And ase whewelen þe linses To-gadere heldeþ hy.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxv. 118. He rydez in a chariot with foure whelez.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 2. In Kente they haue other maner of plowes, somme goo with wheles, as they doo in many other places.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 130. Hoy out (sir carter) the hog fro thy wheele.
1599. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), III. 9. Two turfe waynes furnished wth whiles and axeltries.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xlviii. 185. The bouand dolphin, tumbland lik a vhele.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 490. They … have moving houses built on wheeles.
1782. Cowper, John Gilpin, 41. Smack went the whip, round went the wheels.
1820. A. Sutherland, St. Kathleen, III. 216. It widna be Christian-like to stay cosie at hame, an’ a’ the countryside on the Wheel.
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 223. Noble lords were now and again to be seen following the chase on wheels.
1884. J. E. T. Rogers, Work & Wages, 23. Plain wheels—that is, wheels formed from the trunk of a tree, with holes bored through them for the axles to run on.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xiii. Three leaders and a pair of great upstanding half-bred horses at the wheel.
1893. Dunmore, Pamirs, II. 298. I took my tarantass with five horses attached, three in the wheel and two leaders.
b. Generally, in machinery or mechanical apparatus of any kind.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., I. 502 (Napier 15/1). Rota hauritoria, hlædtrendle, hweowla, hweowl.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 600. Panus, virgula illa circa quam trama involvitur. Idem et canellus dicitur, a Quele.
14[?]. Nom., ibid. 696/10. Hoc vertubrum, a whelle.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 260. A carte-qweel, drye & vngrecyd, cryeth lowdest of oþere qwelys.
1479–81. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 101. Nayle to amende the whele of the Sanctus bell.
1483. Cath. Angl., 415/2. A Wheylle of A drawe wele, anclea.
1495. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 18, Wheles for to wynde up the Mayne Sayle.
1516. Stratton Churchw. Acc., in Archæologia, XLVI. 204. A new whefyll for the gret bell.
1545. Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 21. A while to the secounde tenor.
1590. Sir J. Smythe, Disc. Weapons, 47. Whereby they should faile to strike iust vpon the wheeles being fire-lockes.
1616. T. Scot, Philomythie, H 6. Some wheels were taken off … And some stood vselesse, so the Clock was spoild.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. I. iii. 59. A curious engine compounded of wheels screws and pulleys whereby a lady with a single hair of her head might raise a stone of two hundred weight.
1803. Mrs. P. L. Powys, Passages fr. Diaries (1899), 354. Before you enter the [silk-]manufactory you pass an immense wheel; by that one 99,947 other wheels are all turn’d.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., IV. 185. Other wheel and pinion work … modifies this motion.
c. Wheel and axle (or † axis), as one of the mechanical powers: see POWER sb.1 12.
1773. W. Emerson, Princ. Mech. (ed. 3), 284. Wheel and axle, a machine to raise weights. One of the mechanic powers.
1799. Jas. Wood, Princ. Mech., iv. (ed. 2), 63. The wheel and axle consists of two parts, a cylinder AB moveable about it’s axis CD, and a circle EF so attached to the cylinder that the axis CD passes through it’s center, and is perpendicular to it’s plane.
1821. R. Turner’s Arts & Sci., 85. In using the wheel and axis as the weight is raised, the rope coils round the axis and enlarges the diameter, hence the advantage of the power is diminished.
1862. Spencer, First Princ., II. xiv. § 114 (1875), 325. The advance from the lever lo the wheel-and-axle is an advance from a simple agent to an agent made up of several simple ones.
d. With prefixed defining words indicating kind, structure, use, etc.
There are numerous compounds, as CART-WHEEL, COG-WHEEL, DRIVING-WHEEL, FLY-WHEEL, etc., etc. Fifth wheel, idle wheel; see FIFTH A. 1 c, C, IDLE a. 5 b.
II. A wheel or wheel-like structure, or an instrument or appliance having a wheel as its essential part, used for some specific purpose.
2. A large wheel, or contrivance resembling one, used in various ways as an instrument of torture or punishment. To break on the wheel: see BREAK v. 7 b.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxv. § 7. Þæt unstille hweol ðe Ixion wæs to ʓebunden.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xiv. 86. Het se arleasa casere ʓebindan georium on anum bradum hweowle.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1965. Ha schal beon tohwiðeret, wið þe hweoles swa, in an hondhwile.
c. 1290. St. George, 58, in S. Eng. Leg., 295. So sone ase huy þis guode man a-boue þusse ȝweole brouȝte, Þat ȝweol to-brac.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiii. (George), 545. Þare brocht wes a quhele made Awfule & hye, & in it lade Sharpe swerdis scherand in al syde.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 134. A whele set full of howkes yn þat on syde of þe whele, and swerde poyntys in þat oþyr syde aȝeyne þat.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 111. By the same iudgement was Ponifre … broken vpon a wheele.
1608. Dekker, Dead Tearme, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 11. As if hee were a Male-factor, and hadde beene tortured on the Germaine Wheele.
1709–10. Addison, Tatler, No. 133, ¶ 3. To rescue him from the Ignominy of the Wheel.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 435. The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xli. He was swoln like a corpse three days exposed on the wheel.
b. Wheel of Ixion (Astron.): see quot.
1790. T. Hood, Use of Celestial Globe, 39 b. Corona Austrina, the South garland … Others call it the wheele of Ixion.
3. Various mechanical contrivances. a. The revolving part of a turning-lathe, or of a potter’s lathe (potter’s wheel: see POTTER sb.1 3); also allusively, as in phr. on the wheel = in process of being fashioned, in the making. b. = MILL-WHEEL. c. = SPINNING-WHEEL. d. = TREAD-WHEEL; also, a treadmill. † e. Musical wheel, the revolving barrel of a barrel-organ or musical box. f. An instrument for measuring distances: = PERAMBULATOR 2. g. = Grinding-wheel: see GRINDING vbl. sb. 2. h. Naut., etc. = Steering-wheel: see STEERING vbl. sb. 3 b. i. = PADDLE-WHEEL.
a. 1382. Wyclif, Jer. xviii. 3. And Y cam doun in to the hous of the crockere, and lo! he made a werc vp on a whel.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, III. v. R ij b. As well proportioned as if it had ben made of a tourners hande, at his wheele.
1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol., I. xviii. 153. While they are upon the Wheel (as a Potters Vessel in the Prophet) they are often marred.
1695. J. Sage, Fund. Charter Presbytery (1697), 9. Our Reformation was on the Wheel.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Pottery, The Wheel and Lathe are the Chief, almost the only Instruments, used in Pottery.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 47. Potters … have their wheel at hand, that they may work a little when they please.
b. c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), I. xxv. (1859), 30. The whele of a mylle lyghtly torneth alwey to ther that he bygan.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. x. For the swyftnesse of the water he must nedes passe vnder the whole of the mylle.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., i. 115 b. Of ane milne and ane man slane with the quheill thereof.
1833. Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., 102. I loved the … dark round of the dripping wheel.
c. 1467. Maldon, Essex, Crt. Rolls, Bundle 43, no. 14 (MS.). vii cusshones, 1 whyll, 1 par cardarum, 1 hemper.
c. 1525. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 10. Item j qwele, j par of kayrds, rakyncrok, xijd.
1617. in W. F. Shaw, Mem. Eastry (1870), 229. One payer of wollen cards two wollen whiles.
1651. J. Nicoll, Diary (Bann. Club), 61. Sum pure pepill quha wer spyning that day loist thair quheillis and wer brokin.
1729. P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 57. A Jersey wheel to wind spoyles on.
1834. D. Crockett, Life, iv. 68. My wife had a good wheel, and knowed exactly how to use it.
1890. Hartland, Sci. Fairy Tales, i. (1891), 7. The women at their wheels; and while they spin they sing love ditties.
d. 1623. J. Taylor (Water P.), New Discov., A 6. In a Wheele I saw a comely Asse … draw as it were from the infernall pit … So … coole a water.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1703), 114. Envy is … a vice they say which keeps no holydays, but is always in the wheel, and working upon its own despair.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., III. 331. To climb daily Life’s worn wheel, Which draws up nothing new.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 22 March. It … makes one feel like a dog in a wheel, always moving and never advancing.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Last Cab-driver. He positively refused to work on the wheel; so after many trials, I was compelled to order him into solitary confinement.
e. 1659. Leak, Waterworks, I ij b. Let there be a Musical Wheel … so when the said water Wheel shall turn it shall cause the Musical Wheel to turn.
f. 1696. Phil. Trans., XIX. 319. One by the Wheel was Sixteen Perches round, another in walking Seventy six Paces.
1774. M. Mackenzie, Maritime Surv., iii. 7. Some Surveyors measure their Distances by a Wheel.
g. 1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 433. Running at the Grinder, [he] made him quit his Wheel.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 289. The blades, after being hardened, are directly carried to the grinding-mill, or wheel, as the establishment is called.
h. 1743. Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 8. There broke a Sea in the Ship, which carried me over the Wheel.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxiii. It took two men at the wheel to steer her.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, xxxiii. Most of the people were below, and the few on deck were clustered near the wheel.
1906. C. N. & A. M. Williamson, Car of Destiny, xxxiii. Taking the wheel himself,… he backed the big, reddish-brown car off the barricade.
i. 1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, i. The two great wheels turn fiercely round for the first time; and the noble ship … breaks proudly through the … water.
† 4. A turnstile or similar contrivance at the entrance of a convent. Also turning-wheel (TURNING ppl. a. 7). Obs.
14[?]. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 257. The kepers of the wheyles, grates, gates, or entres into the clausures.
a. 1652. Brome, City Wit, III. i. He never sung to the wheele in Saint Brides Nunnery yonder.
1669. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. xxxi. 192. I wished him to go, and put up a Wheele, and a Grate, in the House appointed for the Nuns dwelling.
5. In full wheel of fortune (see 11 a): = Lottery-wheel: see LOTTERY 5. Also allusively.
1698. Post Boy, 3 Jan., in Hone, Every-day Bk. (1827), II. 1422. We have divers wheels agoing.
1750. New Jersey Archives, Ser. I. (1895), XII. 640. The [Lottery] Tickets will be putting into the wheels on Wednesday.
1763. Brit. Mag., IV. 548. Beware the Wheel of Fortune—’tis a gin, You’ll lose a dozen times for once you win.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, II. I believe Toby will hardly thank me for going into the wheel.
1801. T. Moore, To the Large & Beaut. Miss ——, 4. But how comes it that you, such a capital prize, Should so long have remained in the wheel?
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. Seine, 167. Stalls, provided with wheels-of-fortune, at which the Norman lass boldly ventures her solid sous for empty hopes.
1880. A. McKay’s Hist. Kilmarnock (ed. 4), 121. Wheel-of-fortune men, offering to make all rich in a jiffie.
6. a. A rotatory firework in the form of a wheel. (See also CATHERINE WHEEL 3, PIN-WHEEL 2.) b. Wheel of color: CHROMATROPE. c. Wheel of life: = ZOETROPE.
1629. in Hodgkin, Rariora (1904), III. Fireworks, 16. Girondelles or Fierie Wheeles.
1653. Van Etten’s Math. Recreat., 272. How to make Wheels of Fire.
1826. Hood, Vauxhall, 13. Wheels whiz—smash crackers—serpents twist.
1872. Wheel of life [see ZOOTROPE].
1877. Wood, Nature’s Teach., Optics, ii. 306. The Chromatrope, or Wheel of Colour.
7. orig. and esp. U.S. A bicycle or tricycle; also abstr. (with def. art.) the practice of riding on one, cycling; (with indef. art.) a cycle-ride.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 305/1. The wheel was a new thing in New York ways.
1878. P. Furnivall, Phys. Training, 3. I am more accustomed to the wheel than the pen.
1893. Outing (U.S.), XXII. 140/2. It would have been a most lovely wheel had we chosen to explore it on bicycles.
1896. H. G. Wells, Wheels of Chance, vii. 52. He [Hoopdriver] felt a pleasing sense of having duly asserted the wide sympathy that binds all cyclists together, of having behaved himself as becomes one of the brotherhood of the wheel.
III. Something resembling a wheel in form or movement.
8. An object having the form or figure of a wheel; a circle, or something circular; a disk.
spec. (a) in Needlework, an open pattern or decoration with radiating threads; (b) in Arch. an ornament with radiating tracery (cf. wheel-window in 18); (c) in Zool. a wheel-like structure, as the wheel-organ or trochal disk of a rotifer, or a wheel-spicule in an echinoderm or sponge.
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 5 May, 74. He sæde þæt þa drihtnes fotlastas wæron beworht mid ærne hweole.
c. 1000. Hymns (Surtees), 22/25. Þære sunnan hweoʓul [orig. solis rotam].
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, II. 286. Yf that thow Thorwe on water now a stoon Wel wost thou hyt wol make anoon A litel roundell … And … thow shalt see wel That whele sercle wol cause another whele.
a. 1500. Assemb. Ladies, 55. With stayres going doun Inmiddes the place, with turning wheel, certayn.
1556. Aurelio & Isab. (1608), F vj. The pecocke puttes in a whylle his geltede fethers.
1611. Cotgr., Rouē de mer, the sea-wheele; a huge, round, and monstrous sea-fish.
a. 1651. Sir J. Skeffington, Heroe of Lorenzo (1652), 71. Let the Peacock please himself with the glorious wheel of his train.
1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vi. 64. Wheels occur mixed with the tracery and pannelling of the Italian Gothic.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Forms Anim. Life, 550. The calcareous deposits … are … represented … by wheels [= rotulae], e. g. in Chirodota.
1903. Daily Chron., 3 Oct., 8/3. Trimmed with smart wheels and tassels of brown silk.
9. The celestial sphere or firmament, or one of the spheres of the planets, etc., in the ancient astronomy, regarded as revolving like a wheel. Obs. or merged in figurative senses (see 12, 13).
c. 1200. Ormin, 17531. Þurrh whatt wass heffness whel forrgarrt To dreȝhenn helle pine?
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. met. v. (1868), 21. O þou maker of þe whele þat bereþ þe sterres.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. i. (Skeat), l. 124. The shyning sonne of vertue in bright whele of this Margaryte beholde.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. xl. (1869), 24. The wheel in whiche the moone gooth alwei aboute.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xvi. 242. The fix sterris with her orbe or whele.
1814. Cary, Dante, Parad., I. 62. Her eyes fast fix’d on the eternal wheels [i.e., the heavens].
10. One of the wards of a lock, which are rotated by the key. techn.
1784. Bramah, in Repert. Arts & Manuf. (1796), V. 218. The inserting … between the key-hole and the bolt, a greater or less number of wheels or wards.
1846. Penny Cycl., Suppl. II. 212/1. These prominent rings are the wards, or in technical language, wheels, which impede the introduction of a false key.
IV. Figurative, allusive and abstract uses.
11. a. The wheel that Fortune is fabled to turn, an emblem of mutability. (See also 5.) So wheel of Providence (rare).
Phr. To set or sit high on the wheel (of Fortune): to make or be highly fortunate.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., vii. § 2. Wenst þu þæt ðu þæt hwerfende hweol þonne hit on ryne wyrð mæʓe oncerran?
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23719. Dame fortune turnes þan hir quele.
1340. Ayenb., 24. Huanne þe lheuedi on hap heþ hire hueȝel y-went.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 637. Fortoune…. This mychty kyng of Yngland Scho had set on her quheill on hicht.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 67. Thanked be ffortune and hire false wheel.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 4660. Þe qwele of qwistounes ȝoure qualite encreses.
1448–9. Metham, Amoryus & Cleopes, 389. O fortune,… Qwy chongyddyst thow thi qwele causeles?
1596. T. Wilson, Diana (1921), 34. Ffortunes turning whyle.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 448. Fortune turned her wheele and downe went this Colony.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 228. So fatall a thing it is, for the greatest and straitest Amities of Kings, at one time or other to have a little of the Wheele.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., IV. xxix. (1890), 608. Till the great Wheel of Providence turn up another spoke.
1760–2. Goldsm., Cit. W., vii. The wheel of fortune turns incessantly round.
1859. Tennyson, Marr. Geraint, 347. Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud.
1916. L. Tracy, Day of Wrath, v. The turn of fortune’s wheel was distinctly favourable.
b. With allusion to the wheels of the chariot of the Sun. poet.
1557. Phaër, Æneid, VII. (1558), S ij b. The golden morning bright with roset wheles dyd mounting ryse.
1727. Broome, Iliad, XI. Poems 177. While with his morning Wheels, the God of Day Climb’d up the Steep of Heav’n.
12. In direct fig. use from 1, esp. 1 a, chiefly in reference to the course or sequence of events, procedure, the passage of time. a. from 1 a.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xix. 8. Þai ere draghen aboute with þe whels of couatys.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 18. Whos carte goth upon the whieles Of coveitise and worldes Pride.
1613[?]. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks. (1630), II. 174/2. The wheele of Time would turne.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Cælica, viii. Furrowes not worne by time, but wheeles of anguish.
1668. Pepys, Diary, 27 Dec. All they can hope for to do out of the King’s revenue being but to keep our wheels a-going on present services.
1675. Owen, Indwelling Sin, xvi. (1732), 219. To oyl the Wheels of Mens utmost Endeavours.
1679. Everard, Disc., 20. All these States may be in a condition to nail the Wheel, and to produce an Universal Peace in Christendom.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 86. On these Wheels moves the Traffick of the East, and has succeeded better than any Corporation preceding.
a. 1716. South, Serm., Luke xii. 15, Wks. 1727, IV. 438. Covetousness has been … the principal … Spring of Motion; and … hypocritical Prayers and Fastings, the sure Wheels, by which the great Work … has still gone forward.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., II. ii. I. 346. The great wheel of circulation [sc. money] is altogether different from the goods which are circulated by means of it.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. South sea House. Night’s wheels are rattling fast over me.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, i. This present writer … is anxious … to help the wheel over, and throw his stone on to the pile.
1884. J. Parker, Apost. Life, III. 73. A little recognition of merit, a kindly reference to loving service done … helps the wheel of life to run round more smoothly.
1907. Standard, 19 Jan., 6/6. The wheels of progress might be unduly impeded.
b. On wheels: (a) With rapid and continuous movement or action; chiefly in phr. to go or run on wheels, to proceed swiftly or uninterruptedly; to go smoothly, make good progress; to go on actively or incessantly; (humorously, of a clock) to go too fast or irregularly. (b) In working order, in normal condition for action (dial.).
1547. Gardiner, in Foxe, A. & M. (1563), 734/2. The euell willers of the realme will take corage and make accompt … that all goeth on wheles.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., III. i. 317. Then may I set the world on wheeles, when she can spin for her liuing.
1600. Breton, Pasquil’s Passe, Wks. (Grosart), I. 8/2. From the blaines and kibes vpon my heeles; And from a madding wit that runnes on wheeles,… The blessed Lord of heau’n deliuer me.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey, XVIII. 31. While his tongue Thus runs on wheels.
1731–8. Swift, Pol. Conversat., 108. Col. Pray, my Lord, what’s a Clock by your Oracle? Ld. Sparkish. Faith, I can’t tell, I think my Watch runs upon Wheels.
1820. J. Clare, Poems, 89. If fate’s so kind to let’s be doing, That’s—just keep cart on wheels a going.
1831. Mrs. Sherwood, Henry Milner, III. xv. 307. I can … let my jointure run up to liquidate debts; and then, when it is clear, we shall be on our four wheels again.
† c. A word on its (or upon the) wheels: an echo of the marginal ‘Heb. spoken vpon his wheeles’ in the A.V. of Proverbs xxv. 11, where the text has ‘fitly spoken.’ Obs.
Heb. [Hebrew] (dual or pl.) of this passage is now regarded as ἄπαξ λεγόμενον, and [Hebrew] interpreted as ‘in its turns,’ ‘in (right) circumstances’; formerly referred to [Hebrew] a wheel.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. (1669), 36/1. A word in season is a word on its wheels.
c. 1657. P. Henry, in Life (1699), 23. There never was Truth … more seasonable to any than this was to me: It was a word upon the Wheels.
13. With allusion to sense 1 b, denoting a constituent part or element of something figured as a machine.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Seditions (Arb.), 405. So that if these three wheeles goe, Wealth will flow as in a Spring tide.
a. 1628. Preston, Saints Daily Exerc. (1629), 116. It sets all the wheeles of the soul the right way.
1692. W. Lloyd, Pret. Fr. Invas., 15. The French King (the main Wheel in this designed Restauration).
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 363. Nor does He find the wickedness of men improper wheels for carrying on His most important designs among them.
1771. Wesley, Jrnl., 31 March (1827), III. 415. In the Methodist discipline, the wheels regularly stand thus: the Assistant, the Preachers, the Stewards, the Leaders, the people.
1916. 19th Cent., April, 822. The protagonist sets the wheels of fate in motion.
b. Wheels within wheels, less usually a wheel within a wheel (after Ezek. i. 16): a complexity of forces or influences; a complication of motives, designs or plots; also gen. any complexity.
1679. Prance, Add. Narr., 32. Yet the Wheel within the wheel moved upon other grounds, God making use of his Soveraignty over his Creatures, in raising and stirring up One Nation or Person to punish the Evils of Another.
1709. Shaftesb., Charac. (1711), I. 114. Thus we have Wheels within Wheels. And in some National Constitutions … we have one Empire within another.
a. 1754. E. Erskine, Serm. Wrath of Man, Wks. (1791), 711/2. There is a wheel within a wheel, which will turn matters about so, as the wrath of man shall praise God, and advance his interest, instead of ruining it.
1824. L. Murray, Engl. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 457. They are wheels within wheels; sentences in the midst of sentences.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v., There’s a wheel within a wheel, or you wouldn’t have got that.
1861. Gurowski, Diary (1862), 75. McClellan ought to … have direct action; and not refer to Scott. What is this wheel within a wheel?
1900. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Isle of Unrest, vi. There are wheels within wheels … in the social world of Paris.
14. fig. A reiterated or recurring course of actions, events or time; an endless round or cycle.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 322. Uorte leren us þet we of þe worldes torpelnesse, & of sunne hweol, ofte gon to schrifte.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xi. 9. Erthly godes þat tornes wiþ þe whele of seuen dayes.
1382. Wyclif, James iii. 6. The tunge … set afijre of helle, enflaumeth the wheel of oure birthe.
1871. Alabaster, Wheel of Law, Pref. p. xiii. All Buddhists … call their religion the doctrine of ‘The Wheel of the Law.’
† b. Alch. A series of operations by which one element was supposed to be converted into another.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., in Ashmole (1652), 133. The Wheele of Elements thou canst turne about. Ibid., 187. Then to wyn to thy desyre thou needst not be in dowte, For the Whele of our Phylosophy thou hast turnyd abowte.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. iii. I’ haue another worke;… That three dayes since, past the Philosophers wheele, In the lent heat of Athanor; and ’s become Sulphur o’ nature.
† c. = TURN sb. 28. Obs. rare.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 214. Me sholde ordeyne that euery gouernoure had tene Vicaries in his hoste, and euery vicarie ten lederis in his whele.
15. [Partly f. WHEEL v.] A movement like that of a wheel. a. A movement in a circular or curved course; a circling motion (usually, through a single complete circle); a revolution.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VI. xxviii. 493. In these daunces they made twoo circles or wheeles [orig. dos ruedas de gente].
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 741. Satan … Throws his steep flight in many an Aerie wheele.
1805. Cary, Dante, Inf., XVI. 21. They … Whirl’d round together in one restless wheel.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xxxi. Amid his senses’ giddy wheel. Ibid. (1815), Guy M., xxii. A rough terrier dog … scampered at large in a thousand wheels round the heath.
1847. Longf., Ev., I. iv. 34. Merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying dances.
b. A movement about an axis or center; a rotation; a turn (usually, not completely around); spec. (Mil.) such a movement of a rank or body of troops about a pivot (PIVOT sb. 2); occas. = CART-WHEEL 3.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), I. 69. The captain mountinge on a white horse, did leade the musketires, without any wheeles, but went the high beaten way.
1672. T. Venn, Milit. Discipl., 19. There may be a Counter-march for the gaining of Ground; but I conceive them wholly useless but where you have not ground to make your Wheels.
1788. D. Dundas, Princ. Mil. Movem., App. 5. All wheels or filings made from the halt into column or line, are made at a quick step.
1797. J. Bailey & Culley, Agric. Northumbld., 123. At the first appearance of any person they set off in full gallop; and at the distance of two or three hundred yards, make a wheel round, and come boldly up again.
1832. Prop. Reg. Instr. Cavalry, II. 10. Right Wheel.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., xl. Tea and coffee were enlivened by a collision between the footboys. Stiffneck with the tea-tray made a sudden wheel upon No. 2 with the coffee-tray.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xxviii. The reckless speed and practised wheel of the trained stock horses.
1904. Johnston, H. P. Liddon, xi. 301. The ‘gamins,’ who used to wheedle pennies from him by making ‘wheels’ for his amusement.
16. Prosody. A set of short lines forming the concluding part of a stanza, usually five in number, varying in form and length, but generally having the first line rhyming with the last, and often the intervening three rhyming with each other; the first line in some types is very short, and is then called the bob.
1838. Guest, Engl. Rhythms, II. 290. Besides the staves which originated in mixed and continuous rhime, there are others, which have sprung from the use of the Wheel and Burthen. By the latter of these terms I would understand the return of the same words at the close of each stave, and by the former the return of some marked and peculiar rhythm. Ibid., 332.
1906. Saintsbury, Hist. Engl. Prosody, I. 105. The bob being of two syllables, and the wheel an irregular but unmistakable ballad-quatrain.
V. Combinations.
17. General: a. attrib. Of, pertaining to, consisting of, or connected with a wheel or wheels, as wheel bearing, -belt, -box, -boy (cf. WHEELMAN 1), -cage, -case, -circle, -coulter, -flange, -grease, -lathe, -mark, -nave, -rim, -ring, -road, -rod, -rut, -spoke, -sweep (SWEEP sb. 16 c), -timber, -tire, -tooth, -top, -track, -train (TRAIN sb.1 15), -tread (TREAD sb. 10 b), etc.; furnished with or moving on a wheel or wheels (of vehicles = ‘wheeled’), as wheel-arquebus, -bier, -bridge, -clock, -crane, -harrow, -machine, mail, -sled, -vehicle.
1855. trans. Labarte’s Arts Midl. Ages, x. 369. These arms were denominated *wheel-arquebuses [F. arquebuses à rouet].
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 390. The castors at the front feet work upon *wheel bearings.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 158. There can be no slipping of the twine *wheel-belt.
1898. F. D. How, Bp. Walsham How, xxv. 371. A simple *wheel-bier decorated with flowers received the coffin.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., liii. [A carriage] with silver *wheel-boxes.
1892. Black, Wolfenberg, II. ii. 42. His was the solitary figure slowly pacing up and down by the wheel-box [of a ship].
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 423. Little or no attendance is required from *wheel-boys or followers.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 7 Aug. 1641. The *wheel-bridg, which engine his Excellency had made to run over the moate when they storm’d the castle.
1889. Mivart, Orig. Hum. Reas., 268. A squirrel or white mouse which turns in its *wheel-cage.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wheel-case, a stout paper case,… filled with composition,… tied to the rim of a wheel or rotating piece of fire-works.
c. 1384. *Whele sercle [see 8].
1671. T. Hunt, Abeced. Scholast., 110. By the Press we make men immortal, by *Wheel-clocks we are made companions of time.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 77. Automata … are certainly not older than wheel-clocks.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wheel-colter, a sharp-edged wheel running in advance of the breast of the plow, to cut the sod or weeds in the line of the furrow.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), II. Crone, a *wheel-crane, built on a wharf.
a. 1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedd., II. vi. (1664), 99. Ever since yellow starch and *wheel Fardingales were cry’d down.
1859. Newton’s Lond. Jrnl. Arts, 1 Feb., 115. The pressure of the *wheel-flange will tend to crush any obstructing substance upon the chairs.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 269/1. Axungia,… *wheele grease.
1901. Academy, 8 June, 495/2. Derby, with its locomotives and everlasting Midland wheel-grease.
1404. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 399. j *qwhele harow.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wheel-lathe, a lathe for turning railway-wheels and other large work.
1770. Forbes, Jrnl. (1886), 288. A Wooden Bridge … by which Horses and *Wheel-machines do easily Cross the Water.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xxvii. It was problematical whether the contractor was running a *wheel mail or not.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., xxxix. Following the old *wheel-marks on the gravel.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 332. The Witch-Elm … is good for *Wheel-naves.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 162. The payntit povne … Kest vp his taill, a provd plesand *quheil rym.
1893. Outing (U.S.), XXII. 133/2. My rear wheel-rim.
1766. Complete Farmer, s.v. Fence, This timber is of excellent service … for ploughs, axle-trees, *wheel-rings, harrows, &c.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, i. To my own contemporaries, who have known *wheel-road, bridle-way, and footpath for thirty years.
1882. Morris, in Mackail, W. M. (1899), II. 67. The wheel-roads across the downs are doubtful.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 95. The breadth betweene the *wheele-ruts of one of their cartes.
1829. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 59. Little is laid open to us but two wheel-ruts and two hedges.
1570. Rec. Inverness (New Spalding Club), I. 195. That na *quheill sleddis … cum vpon the brig.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1562), 19/1. A *whele spoke, radius vel modiolus.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 326. Oak … for … Shingles, Wainscott, Wheel Spoakes.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xxxiii. It had stout wheel-spokes, and heavy felloes.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1244. The Pulborough stone paving of the *wheel sweep.
1376. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 584. Rob’o Yoill, carpentario, culpanti *qweltimber.
1573. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc., 1893), 139. Item bords cowper tymber wheles and whele tymber.
1662. Atwell, Faithf. Surveyour, 132. Plow-timber, cart-timber, wheel-timber.
1792. Descr. Kentucky, 41. In 1787 were exported Sets of wheel timbers 1,056.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 145. According as the metal is intended to be reduced to the strength of *wheel-tyre, hoop-iron, or different sized bars.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 509. The points of the *wheel-teeth must not be rounded off.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXVII. (Percy Soc.), 118. Beholdynge Mars how wonderly he stode, On a *whele top with a lady of pryde.
1552. Huloet, *Whele tracte or rutte, orbita.
c. 1820. S. Rogers, Italy, Naples, 115. The wheel-track worn for centuries.
1859. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871), II. 285. A vineyard, with a wheel-track through the midst of it.
1888. Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., *Wheel-train, a number of wheels so arranged that the revolution of one causes the revolution of all.
1735–6. *Wheel-tread [see TREAD sb. 10 b].
1734. J. Rowe (title), All sorts of wheel-carriage improved;… Waggons, Carts, Coaches, and all other *Wheel-Vehicles.
1836. Carlyle, New Lett. (1904), I. 48. The wheel-vehicles making no noise.
b. Objective, as wheel-bearer (= ROTIFER), -cutter, -maker, -tapper, -turner; wheel-bearing, -cutting, -greasing, -resembling, -turning sbs. and adjs.; instrumental, as wheel-engraving; wheel-going, -made, -marked, -smashed, -spun, -turned, -worn adjs.; similative, parasynthetic, etc., as wheel-broad, -footed, -like adjs.
1861. H. J. Slack, Marvels of Pond-life, ii. 23. 23. Following the Protozoa, come the Rotifera, or Wheel-bearers.
1877. Wood, Nature’s Teach., Optics, ii. 306. Soon after the powers of the microscope became known, these Wheel-bearers were discovered.
1846. Patterson, Zool., 6. The order itself Rotifera, or *wheel-bearing.
1670. Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. Prol. *Wheel-broad hats.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 308/2. *Wheel-cutting … comprehends the modes of cutting the teeth in the wheels used by watch and clock makers.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 88. The circular brass plate in a wheel-cutting engine.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 946/1. *Wheel Engraving.… As distinguished from sand-blast engraving or acid etching. See Glass Engraving.
1788. Cowper, Gratitude, 9. This *wheel-footed studying chair.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, i. At Semlin … I had come, as it were, to the end of this *wheel-going Europe.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 607/1. The cilia constitute the … *wheel-like organs of the Rotiferous Infusoria.
1888. Jrnl. Derbysh. Archæol. Soc., X. 50. *Wheel-made pottery in the barrows of the district.
14[?]. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 688/15. Hic rotarius, *whelmaker.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1154. The principle which directs the modern wheel-maker.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIV. 398/1. Along a wide and *wheel-marked trail.
1596. R. Linche, Diella (1877), 68. Great Gouernour of (*wheele-resembling) Heauen.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, *Wheelspun, very stout worsted yarn, spun on the common large wheel.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), Index 178. *Wheel tapper.
1837. Wheelwright, trans. Aristophanes, II. 293. O thou clear lustre of the *wheel-turn’d lamp.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wheel-turning Lathe, one with two very solid head-stocks with large face-plates, and two slide-rests operated by a ratchet-feed from an overhead rock-shaft.
1727. Broome, Jason & Medea, Poems 242. Along the *Wheel-worn Road they hold their way.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 21. The chariots bounding in her wheel-worn streets.
18. Special Combinations: wheel-animal, -animalcule = ROTIFER; wheel-assembler, one who fits together the parts of the wheels of bicycles, etc.; so wheel-assembly, the operation of doing this; wheel-back, a back resembling a wheel, characteristic of chairs made by Heppelwhite about 1775; wheel-barometer, a mercurial barometer having a float attached to a string passing over a pulley-wheel on which the index turns; wheel-base, the distance between the points of contact of the front and back wheels of a vehicle, as a bicycle or railway-carriage, with the ground or rail; † wheel-bed, a trundle-bed; wheel-bird, a local name for the night-jar or goat-sucker, from its cry suggesting the noise of a spinning-wheel; wheel-boat, a boat with wheels, esp. (Sc.) a steamboat with paddle-wheels; wheel-bug, a large reduviid insect (Prionidus cristatus) of the southern United States and W. Indies, with a semicircular serrated crest suggesting a cog-wheel; wheel-chain (see quot.); wheel-chair, a chair with wheels, esp. a Bath chair; wheel-cross, a variety of ring-cross with arms radiating from a small circle in the center of the ring; wheel-draught, a current of smoke and hot air in a steam-engine, circulating continuously in one direction; † wheel-fire [mod. L. ignis rotæ], in Old Chem., a fire completely encompassing a crucible; wheel-guard, (a) a circular guard on a sword or dagger; (b) a guard to protect a wheel from dirt or injury, or to prevent it from chafing some other part of the vehicle or machine; wheel-head, (a) the nave or central part of a wheel; (b) ‘the headstock of a spinning-mule’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.); (c) ‘the lathe-head of a seal-engraver’s engine’ (Cent. Dict.); wheel-horse, a horse harnessed between the shafts of a vehicle, next to the wheels, as distinguished from a leader; fig. a person who bears the chief burden of a business; wheel-insect = wheel-animal; wheel-iron (see quot. 1837); wheel-ladder (see quot. 1888); wheel-map (see quot. 1899); wheel-money, name for certain prehistoric metallic objects, supposed by some to be money, made in the form of a wheel, i.e., of a cross surrounded by a ring; wheel-organ Zool., see 8 (c); wheel-pair, a pair of wheel-horses; wheel pen, a pen with a small toothed wheel instead of nibs, for tracing dotted lines (Webster, 1920); wheel-piece, (a) a lateral part of a car-truck, supporting the pedestals or axle-boxes; (b) a post fixed beneath a door-sill on each side, to take the strain of the wheels of a vehicle when passing over it; wheel-pit, (a) a space enclosed by masonry for a large wheel, as a fly-wheel or turbine, to turn in; (b) dial. a whirlpool; wheel-plate, (a) the part of a solid wheel between the rim and the hub; (b) see quot. 1892; wheel-plough, a plow having wheels running on the ground to reduce the friction or regulate the depth of the furrow; wheel-press, (a) a form of rotary printing-press; (b) a hydraulic press for molding a solid wheel, or for fixing it on the axle; wheel-race, the part of a mill-race in which the mill-wheel is fixed; wheel-rood = wheel-cross; wheel-rope Naut., † (a) cf. quot. 1495 in 1 b; (b) a rope passing round the barrel of the steering-wheel to the tiller; wheel-seat, the part of an axle encircled by the wheel (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1884); wheel-shaped a., having the shape of a wheel; spec. in Bot. = ROTATE a.; † wheel-sick a., giddy; wheel-skate, a roller-skate; so wheel-skater, -skating; wheel-spicule Zool. one of certain disk-shaped calcareous concretions, with an appearance of radiating spokes, in the skin of some holothurians; also, a wheel-shaped spicule in sponges; wheel-spur (ME. -spore), the ridge on the inner side of a wheel-rut (cf. SPOOR sb.1, and cart-spur s.v. CART sb. 6); wheel-stitch (see quot.); wheel-stock (local), (a) the nave of a wheel, or timber to be used for this; (b) wood materials for wheel-making; wheel-stone, a fossil consisting of a detached joint of the stem of an encrinite, and having the form of a circular disk with a central perforation; an entrochite; wheel-swarf [SWARF sb.2], the pasty substance produced by the friction of a grindstone and the cutlery ground upon it, consisting of a mixture of particles of stone and steel, and used as an air-tight coating in steel-manufacture; wheel-tax, a tax on wheeled carriages; wheel-tracery, tracery radiating from a center, as in a wheel-window; wheel-tree, (a) a S. American tree (Aspidosperma excelsum), also called paddle-wood (cf. quot. 1866 s.v. PADDLE sb. 11); (b) an Australian tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus) with flowers in circular clusters; (c) Mining (see quot. 1886); wheel vat, in Tanning = PIN-WHEEL sb. 3; wheel way, a way, road or track along which wheeled vehicles run; also fig. (cf. RUT sb.2 1 c); † wheel-whirl (see quot.); wheel-window, a circular window with mullions radiating from the center like the spokes of a wheel (= CATHERINE WHEEL 2); wheel-wise adv., in the manner or form of a wheel; (of swimming) with the arms moving like the spokes of a wheel. See also WHEEL-BAND, WHEELBARROW, etc.
1788. Encycl. Brit., II. 28/1. The *Wheel-Animal, or Vorticella … is found in rain water that has stood some days.
1834. Lancet, 24 May, 290/2. We see in this *wheel-animalcule, the hydatina senta, many of those muscular bands passing down longitudinally from the head, nearly as we saw in the large holothuria.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 277/2. All through the arts of the *wheel-assemblers. Ibid., 279/2. They are then sent to the *wheel-assembly department, to receive the bearings, spokes and rims.
1909. G. O. Wheeler, Old Engl. Furnit. (ed. 2), 489. Heppelwhite’s *wheel-back chair … may be found with cabriole legs, and later with typical straight tapered ones.
1665–6. Phil. Trans., I. 155. My *Wheel-barometer I could never fill so exactly with Mercury, as to exclude all Air.
1840. Hutton’s Recr. Math., 652. Several expedients have been adopted for lengthening the scale of the barometer…. The most popular expedient is that adopted in what is called the wheel barometer.
1886. Jrnl. Franklin Inst., March, 201. The distance between the supporting wheels is four feet, which thus forms the rigid *wheel-base of the truck.
1556. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 92. On pare of bed stocks, one pare for a *qwele bedd.
1589. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc., 1860), 206. One standinge bedd and a wheelebed in ye parlor.
1619. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 238. For a wheele bedd vjs.
1817. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., X. I. 147. This species [European Goatsucker] makes a … noise, which has been compared to that of a large spinning wheel,… and has on that account been called the *wheel bird.
1862. [see WHEELER 6].
1834. Marryat, Peter Simple, viii. ‘How did you come from Glasgow?’ ‘By the *wheel-boat, or steam-boat, as they ca’d it, to Lunnon.’
1864. Webster, Wheel-boat, a boat with wheels, to be used either on water or upon inclined planes or railways.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., iv. (1818), I. 110. The *wheel-bug can … communicate an electric shock to the person whose flesh it touches.
1868. Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869), 316. The Reduvius, or wheel-bug, is found in gardens, feeding voraciously upon caterpillars.
1891. H. Patterson, Naut. Dict., 194. *Wheel Chains, chains used in place of the rope for connecting the steering wheel and the tiller.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 11 Jan. 1662. My Lord Aubignie … shew’d us … his *wheele-chaire for ease and motion.
1904. Lee, Recoll. Gen. R. E. Lee, 196. When put in her wheel-chair, she could propel herself on a level floor.
1882. Worsaab, Industr. Arts Denmark, 66. The ring-cross was sometimes employed indiscriminately with the *wheel-cross to indicate the wheels of the sun-carriage.
1871. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 529. A *wheel-draught; that is to say, the current of flame and smoke, after passing along the bottom of the boiler, rises up at the end.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., 165. Make a good fire of Charcole about it, wch is called a *Wheel-fire of cementation.
1860. J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, II. 258. The guard took a variety of forms, as the cross-guard, that composed of two knobs, and the *wheel-guard.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Wheel-guard Plate, (Ordnance), an iron plate on each side of the stock of a … gun-carriage to prevent its being chafed by the wheels when turning.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. vi. On naked beams above were suspended … *wheelheads, &c.
1900. Daily News, 17 Jan., 7/1. The wheel-head crosses of Ireland.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4424/1. Which enjoins Waggoners to draw with a Pole between the *Wheel-Horses.
1827. Hare, Guesses, Ser. I. 10. He falls into it as certainly as a new wheel-horse in a mail.
1911. H. S. Harrison, Queed, xxvii. The only speech was made by the Solon who had the bill called up, a familiar organization wheelhorse.
1800. J. Anderson, Recreat., II. 257. There has been discovered among the animalcula infusoria, one which … has been called by the English, the *wheel insect.
1829. Sporting Mag. (N. S.) XXIII. 388. What we call a *wheel-iron, placed, as usual on the nose of an axle-tree.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 87. Splinter Bar Stays, to resist the action of the draught. Formerly these were affixed to the ends of the axles, and called ‘wheel irons.’
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 36. *Wheele ladder for haruest.
1710. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., Sept. (1744), 117. Cart Ladders and Wheel Ladders are Frames on the sides and Tail, to support light Loads as Hay, &c.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Wheel-ladder, a lade for the back part of a wagon, having a small roller or windlass attached, by which the ropes for binding the load can be strained tight.
1899. Geog. Jrnl., March, 226. The mediæval *wheel-maps, in which Jerusalem was accepted as the centre of the world, whence the main geographical lines radiated like the spokes of a wheel.
1907. T. C. Middleton, Geogr. Knowl. Discov. Amer., 18. The ‘wheel-maps’ of the globe, devised by St. Isidore.
1861. Archæol. Cambrensis, Ser. II. VII. 215. These specimens of *wheel and ring money, which were fabricated in the latter place [sc. Caltu].
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 138. This *wheel-organ—so-called from the movement of its cilia—varies greatly in character.
1794. in Chamb. Jrnl. (1858), 9 Oct., 234/1. The postilion so managed the *wheel-pair, that the princesses … were … enabled to leap from the carriage without injury.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 889. The sill of the door … sunk level with the threshing-floor, and supported by two stout posts or *wheel-pieces.
1828. Craven Gloss., *Wheel-pit, a whirlpool.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Wheel-pit, a walled hole for the heavy fly-wheel of a train of rolls, etc.
1859. Carriage Builders’ Art Jrnl., I. 7/2. In Broughams,… when a *wheel-plate twenty-two inches in diameter is used, a shortening of nine inches is gained between the fore and hind wheels.
1881. J. W. Burgess, Coach-Building, 92. The central circle is the wheel-plate, or, as the Americans term it, the fifth wheel.
1892. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Quadrant Plate, or Wheel Plate.—The plate which carries the stud wheels in the change wheel series for screw cutting in the lathe.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 38. The Hertfordshire *Wheel-Plough.
1710. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., Sept. (1744), 119. A Wheel-Plough for Stony, and a Swing Plough for Clay.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 646. It must be admitted, even by the advocates of the wheel-plough, that … they cannot by any means be brought so handily to follow the undulations of the surface.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Wheel-press, a hydrostatic press for forcing car-wheels on to their axles and removing them.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 185. The wheel-press of Benjamin Dearborn.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 104. The *wheel-race should always be built in a substantial manner with masonry.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 259. Here, above the chancel arch, hung a *wheel-rood of exceeding beauty.
1485. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 37. *Whele Ropes feble … j.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 483. The pressure of the helm strained a new wheel-rope. Ibid. (1823), Jrnl., 358. We lay to under a close-reefed main top sail, until new wheel-ropes were arranged.
1775. J. Jenkinson, trans. Linnæus’ Brit. Plants, 231. *Wheel-shaped.
1895. R. Davey, Sultan & Subj. (1897), I. 15. An enormous wheel-shaped box, divided into compartments.
1670. Baxter, Cure Ch. Div., 141. As boyes when they have made themselves *wheel-sick with turning round will lay hold on the next post to keep them from falling.
1870. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., Suppl. 8/1. A pair of *wheel skates.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Winter City, vi. The *wheelskaters, and poker-players … of our time.
1875. Field, 2 Jan., 1/3. The *wheel-skating at Brighton and at Prince’s.
1877. Encycl. Brit., VII. 639/2. *Wheel-spicule of Chirodota vitiensis.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 524/1. *Whele spore (K., H. welspore), orbita.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, s.v., If, to avoid the deep rut, a carriage drawn by a single horse was ventured upon the quarter, the horse was obliged to make the wheel-spur his path, often a very unsafe one, particularly in stiff soils.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 195/2. *Wheel Stitch, a stitch resembling a spider’s web, and worked into the material, and not over an open space, like English wheel and other lace Wheels.
1835. Dav. Webster, Rhymes, 11 (E.D.D.). My mither … bang’d her bobbin down on the *wheel stock.
1884. C. S. Sargent, Rep. Forests N. Amer., 515. Manufacturers of cooperage and wheel stock.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Wheel-stock … the nave of a wheel.
1846. Patterson, Zool., 46. The detached vertebræ are well described by the common English name of *‘wheel-stones.’
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 229. In Sheffield, a mass of the stiff ferruginous mud, called *wheelswarf,… is generally used.
1888. Daily News, S Dec., 5/4. There had been enough of this sort of *wheel-tax policy tried in other places.
1913. M. Barrett, Scott. Monast. of Old, II. v. 178. The west window contained a splendid specimen of *wheel tracery.
1882. J. Smith, Dict. Pop. Names Plants, 438. *Wheel Tree, or Paddle-wood (Aspidosperma excelsum) … when cut transversely the section has the appearance of the rays of a wheel.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 72. Wheel-tree, a prop to which the pulley on a short self-acting incline is fastened.
1885. *Wheel vat [see WHEEL v. 17].
a. 785. Charter of Offa, in Birch, Cartul. Sax., I. 342. And on *hweoʓel weʓ to þan rahheʓe.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., vi. (1867), 114. To lie supine in the ruinous wheel-way of chance.
1889. Century Mag., Aug., 570/2. Nearer the wheelway and upon the outer edges of the public road.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 213. The tayle [of the Newt] standeth out betwixt the hinder-legges in the midle, like the figure of a *wheele-whirle [trans. Gesner: rhombi figuræ quadam similitudine].
1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vi. 63. *Wheel windows are exceedingly prevalent in Italy; unfortunately the tracery is often removed.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., Wks. (Grosart), V. 105. Embossed christall eies affixed, wherein *wheelewise were circularly ingrafted sharpe pointed diamonds.
1859. W. H. Gregory, Egypt, I. 276. Swimming as schoolboys call it wheel-wise.
