Forms: see WHEEL sb. and WRIGHT.
1. A man who makes wheels and wheeled vehicles.
1281. Pat. 9 Edw. I., m. 22 d. in 50th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec., 22. Richard le Whelwryht.
1482. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 198. To the whele wryte of Boxford for exyng of a carte v.d.
1483. Cath. Angl., 415/2. A Whele wryght, rotarius.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 134. If there be asshes in it, [I advise thee] to sell … the gret asshes to whele-wryghtes.
1534. Nottingham Rec., III. 373. Thomas Hobe … the qwylwryght.
1662. in Proc. Suffolk Inst. Archæol. (1883), VI. 90. To Jno Blomfield Whealewright as by his bill, 01 05 00.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXX. 486. They carry with them only their best wood for spars and wheelwright’s work.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, Introd. The wheelwright putting the last touch to a blue cart with red wheels.
† 2. One who works at or turns a wheel: applied to Fortune (cf. WHEEL sb. 11 a). Obs.
a. 1300. Poem on Fortune, v. in Rel. Ant., II. 8. A wifman of so much myȝth, So wonder a whelwryȝth, Sey I nevere with syȝth.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxi. (Thornton MS.). False fortune in fyghte, That wondirfulle whele wryghte.
Hence Wheelwrighting, the business of a wheelwright; the making of wheels and wheeled vehicles.
1894. Review of Rev., April, 441/2. Wheel-wrighting also grows of necessity out of the making and care of the wagons and other vehicles of the farm.
