wheel : Idioms & Phrases

• a complication of circumstances, motives, etc.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), wheels turning freely on small pivots, and sustaining, at the angle formed by their circumferences, the pivot or journal of a revolving shaft, to relieve it of friction; called also friction wheels.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel that regulates the rate of movement in a machine; especially a wheel oscillating against the hairspring of a timepiece to regulate its beat
  balance.
  

WordNet

• . See in the Vocab.

Webster 1913

• a cogwheel whose working face is oblique to the axis. Knight.

Webster 1913

• See under Bevel, Brake, etc.

Webster 1913

• noun the wheel of a bicycle
  

WordNet

• noun an important influential person
  big cheese; big gun; big fish; big shot; head honcho; big deal; big enchilada.
  
  • he thinks he's a big shot
  • she's a big deal in local politics
  • the Qaeda commander is a very big fish

WordNet

• a wheel on the platform or top of a car by which brakes are operated.

Webster 1913

Brush" wheel`

Definitions

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.
2. A circular revolving brush used by turners, lapidaries, silversmiths, etc., for polishing.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel that is covered with soft material
  

WordNet

• a wheel, or drum, on which a rope is wound for lifting heavy articles, as logs, the tools in well boring, etc.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a wheel with one or more projections (cams) or depressions upon its periphery or upon its face; one which is set or shaped eccentrically, so that its revolutions impart a varied, reciprocating, or intermittent motion.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel that has a tire and rim and hubcap; used to propel the car
  

WordNet

Car" wheel`

Definitions

1. A flanged wheel of a railway car or truck.

Webster 1913

• . (Mach.) See Heart wheel.

Webster 1913

Cath"a*rine wheel`

Definitions

1. See catherine wheel.

Webster 1913

• noun a circular firework that spins round and round emitting colored fire
  pinwheel.
  

WordNet

Cath"er*ine wheel`

Etymology

Definitions

1. (Geoth.Arth.) Same as Rose window and Wheel window. Called also Catherine-wheel window.
2. (Pyrotechny) A revolving piece of fireworks resembling in form the window of the same name. Written also Catharine wheel.

Webster 1913

• . See in the Vocabulary.

Webster 1913

• (Mech.), one of a set of wheels of different sizes and number of teeth, that may be changed or substituted one for another in machinery, to produce a different but definite rate of angular velocity in an axis, as in cutting screws, gear, etc.

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• noun a chart in which complementary colors (or their names) are arranged on opposite sides of a circle
  color circle.
  

WordNet

• . See Crown wheel.

Webster 1913

• . (Mach.) (a) A mortise gear. (b) A wheel having a rim perforated to receive wooden cogs; the skeleton of a mortise gear.

Webster 1913

Count"-wheel` noun

Definitions

1. The wheel in a clock which regulates the number of strokes.

Webster 1913

• a wheel acting as a crank, or having a wrist to which a connecting rod is attached.

Webster 1913

• . See in the Vocabulary.

Webster 1913

• a wheel dipping into the water and driven by the current of a stream or by the ebb and flow of the tide.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel around which is a set of print characters that make a typing impression on paper
  daisy print wheel.
  

WordNet

• noun a wheel around which is a set of print characters that make a typing impression on paper
  daisy print wheel.
  

WordNet

• noun a wheel that drives a motor vehicle (transforms torque into a tractive force)
  

WordNet

• (Mach.), a wheel that communicates motion; one of the large wheels of a locomotive to which the connecting rods of the engine are attached; called also, simply, driver. See Illust. of Locomotive.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel composed of abrasive material; used for grinding
  emery wheel.
  

WordNet

• a wheel containing emery, or having a surface of emery. In machine shops, it is sometimes called a buff wheel, and by the manufacturers of cutlery, a glazer.

Webster 1913

• a device for producing straight-line motion from circular motion, on the principle that a pin fastened in the periphery of a gear wheel will describe a straight line when the wheel rolls around inside a fixed internal gear of twice its diameter.

Webster 1913

• noun gear that engages a rocking lever
  

WordNet

• (Horol.), the wheel of an escapement.

Webster 1913

• . (Mach.) (a) A crown wheel. (b) A Wheel whose disk face is adapted for grinding and polishing; a lap.

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• the wheel of a fan blower.

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• (Naut.), a paddle wheel whose floats turn automatically so as to dip about perpendicularly into the water and leave in it the same way, avoiding beating on the water in the descent and lifting water in the ascent.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a kind of feeder. See Feeder, n., 8.

Webster 1913

• noun a vertical rotating mechanism consisting of a large wheel with suspended seats that remain upright as the wheel rotates; provides a ride at an amusement park
  

WordNet

• noun someone or something that is unwanted and unneeded
  deadwood.
  
• noun an extra car wheel and tire for a four-wheel vehicle
  spare.
  
• noun a steering bearing that enables the front axle of a horse-drawn wagon to rotate
  

WordNet

• a horizontal wheel or segment above the fore axle of a carriage and beneath the body, forming an extended support to prevent careening.

Webster 1913

• noun annual of central United States having showy long-stalked yellow flower heads marked with scarlet or purple in the center
  Indian blanket; blanket flower; fire wheel; Gaillardia pulchella.
  

WordNet

• noun annual of central United States having showy long-stalked yellow flower heads marked with scarlet or purple in the center
  Indian blanket; blanket flower; fire wheel; Gaillardia pulchella.
  

WordNet

• (Mech.), a paddle wheel made to revolve in a breast or curved water way, by which water is lifted from the lower to the higher level.

Webster 1913

• a water wheel placed below a fall or in a chute where rapidly moving water strikes the tips of the floats; so called from the spattering, and the fluttering noise it makes.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a heavy wheel attached to machinery to equalize the movement (opposing any sudden acceleration by its inertia and any retardation by its momentum), and to accumulate or give out energy for a variable or intermitting resistance. See Fly, n., 9.

Webster 1913

• adjective of or relating to vehicles with four wheels
  four-wheel.
  
  • a four-wheel drive

WordNet

• noun a motor vehicle with a four-wheel drive transmission system
  4WD.
  
• noun a transmission that provides power directly to all four wheels of a motor vehicle
  4WD.
  

WordNet

• adjective of or relating to vehicles with four wheels
  four-wheel.
  
  • a four-wheel drive

WordNet

Four"-wheeled` adjective

Definitions

1. Having four wheels.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), one of the wheels in frictional gearing. See under Frictional.

Webster 1913

Fudge" wheel"

Definitions

1. (Shoemaking) A tool for ornamenting the edge of a sole.

Webster 1913

• a wheel at the forward end of a plow beam, to determine the depth of the furrow.

Webster 1913

• noun a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion
  cogwheel; gear wheel; gear.
  

WordNet

• any cogwheel.

Webster 1913

• noun a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion
  cogwheel; gear wheel; gear.
  

WordNet

• . (a) In a cotton gin, a wheel for drawing the fiber through the grid; a brush wheel to clean away the lint. (b) (Mining) the drum of a whim.

Webster 1913

• a spinning wheel.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel composed of abrasive material; used for grinding
  emery wheel.
  

WordNet

• that wheel of a harvester, mowing machine, etc., which, rolling on the ground, drives the mechanism.

Webster 1913

• a form of cam, shaped like a heart. See Cam.

Webster 1913

• a water wheel in which the axis is vertical, the buckets or floats revolving in a horizontal plane, as in most turbines.

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• noun a pulley on a shaft that presses against a guide belt to guide or tighten it
  idler pulley; idle pulley.
  

WordNet

• (Mach.), a gear wheel placed between two others, to transfer motion from one to the other without changing the direction of revolution.

Webster 1913

• verb work doggedly or persistently
  peg away; slog; plug away; keep one's nose to the grindstone.
  
  • She keeps plugging away at her dissertation

WordNet

• (Mach.), a kind of pinion or wheel having cylindrical bars or trundles, instead of teeth, inserted at their ends in two parallel disks or plates; so called as resembling a lantern in shape; called also wallower, or trundle.

Webster 1913

• noun a small pinion having cylindrical bars instead of teeth, used chiefly in inexpensive clocks
  lantern pinion.
  

WordNet

• a machine consisting essentially of a revolving lap on a vertical spindle, used by a lapidary for grinding and polishing.

Webster 1913

• a wheel situated before the driving wheels of a locomotive engine.

Webster 1913

• a wheel in which the teeth, or pins, on its face, are interrupted on one side, and the pinion, working in them, passes from inside to outside of the teeth alternately, thus converting the continuous circular motion of the pinion into a reciprocating circular motion of the wheel.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a cogwheel of suitable pitch to work with another wheel; specifically, one of a pair of cogwheels of equal size.

Webster 1913

• an odometer, or perambulator.

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• noun water wheel that is used to drive machinery in a mill
  millwheel.
  

WordNet

• the water wheel that drives the machinery of a mill.

Webster 1913

• a pair of bevel gears, of equal diameter, adapted for working together, usually with their axes at right angles.

Webster 1913

• . See Gin block, under 5th Gin.

Webster 1913

• a cast-iron wheel, with wooden clogs inserted in mortises on its face or edge; also called mortise gear, and core gear.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a gear wheel from a portion of whose periphery the cogs are omitted. It is used for giving intermittent movements.

Webster 1913

• a vertical water wheel, the circumference of which is covered with cavities or buckets, and which is turned by water which shoots over the top of it, filling the buckets on the farther side and acting chiefly by its we'ght.

Webster 1913

• noun a large wheel fitted with paddles and driven by an engine in order to propel a boat
  paddlewheel.
  

WordNet

• the propelling wheel of a steam vessel, having paddles (or floats) on its circumference, and revolving in a vertical plane parallel to the vessel's length.

Webster 1913

• (Railroad), a car wheel having a steel tire, and a center formed of compressed paper held between two plate-iron disks. Forney.

Webster 1913

• a chain pump; a noria.

Webster 1913

• (Horology), a count-wheel.

Webster 1913

• the balance of a watch.

Webster 1913

• a noria; a tympanum. See Noria.

Webster 1913

• . (a) A contrate wheel in which the cogs are cylindrical pins . (b) (Fireworks) A small coil which revolves on a common pin and makes a wheel of yellow or colored fire.

Webster 1913

• noun gears that mesh at an angle
  pinion and ring gear; bevel gear.
  

WordNet

• noun an outer gear that revolves about a central sun gear of an epicyclic train
  planet gear; planetary gear; epicyclic gear.
  

WordNet

• a gear wheel which revolves around the wheel with which it meshes, in an epicyclic train.

Webster 1913

• (Mech.), a wheel, the rim and hub of which are connected by a continuous plate of metal, instead of by arms or spokes.

Webster 1913

• a wheel or disk coated with, or composed of, abrading material, for polishing a surface.

Webster 1913

• (Hydraul.), a noria.

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• noun a horizontal rotating wheel holding the clay being shaped by a potter
  
  • the potter's wheel was invented in Asia Minor around 6500 BC

WordNet

• a horizontal revolving disk on which the clay is molded into form with the hands or tools. "My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel." Shak.

Webster 1913

• noun a cylinder with prayers written on it; each revolution counts as uttering the prayers; used especially by Buddhists in Tibet
  

WordNet

• a wheel on which prayers are pasted by Buddhist priests, who then put the wheel in rapid revolution. Each turn in supposed to have the efficacy of an oral repetition of all the prayers on the wheel. Sometimes it is moved by a stream.

Webster 1913

• (Knitting machine), a bar or wheel which closes the barbs of the needles to enable the loops of the yarn to pass over them.

Webster 1913

• a wheel with letters or figures on its periphery, used in machines for paging or numbering, or in ticket-printing machines, typewriters, etc.; a type wheel.

Webster 1913

• the screw, usually having two or more blades, used in propelling a vessel. propeller blade, the elongated part of an airplane propeller

Webster 1913

• . (a) A chain wheel; a sprocket wheel . (b) A polishing wheel made of disks of cloth clamped together on a mandrel.

Webster 1913

• noun toothed wheel held in place by a pawl or detent and turned by a lever
  

WordNet

• (Mach.), a circular wheel having teeth, usually angular, with which a reciprocating pawl engages to turn the wheel forward, or a stationary pawl to hold it from turning backward.

Webster 1913

• (Mech.), a water wheel driven by the reaction of water, usually one in which the water, entering it centrally, escapes at its periphery in a direction opposed to that of its motion by orifices at right angles, or inclined, to its radii.

Webster 1913

• the circle described by the point whose velocity equals the velocity of the ship. J. Bourne.

Webster 1913

• noun game equipment consisting of a wheel with slots that is used for gambling; the wheel rotates horizontally and players bet on which slot the roulette ball will stop in
  wheel.
  

WordNet

Scape"-wheel` noun

Definitions

1. (Horol.) the wheel in an escapement (as of a clock or a watch) into the teeth of which the pallets play.

Webster 1913

• a wheel for raising water, having scoops or buckets attached to its circumference; a tympanum.

Webster 1913

Side"-wheel` adjective

Definitions

1. Having a paddle wheel on each side; -- said of steam vessels; as, a side-wheel steamer.

Webster 1913

• noun a small domestic spinning machine with a single spindle that is driven by hand or foot
  

WordNet

• a machine for spinning yarn or thread, in which a wheel drives a single spindle, and is itself driven by the hand, or by the foot acting on a treadle.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a gear resembling in general a spur gear, but having its teeth cut at an angle with its axis, or so that they form small portions of screws or spirals.

Webster 1913

• noun thin wheel with teeth that engage with a chain
  sprocket.
  

WordNet

Sprock"et wheel`

Etymology

Definitions

1. (Mach.) Same as Chain wheel.

Webster 1913

• noun gear wheels that mesh in the same plane
  spur gear.
  

WordNet

• . Same as Spur gear, above.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), a star-shaped disk, used as a kind of ratchet wheel, in repeating watches and the feed motions of some machines.

Webster 1913

• noun a handwheel that is used for steering
  wheel.
  

WordNet

• (Naut.), the wheel by means of which the rudder of a vessel is turned and the vessel is steered.

Webster 1913

• a paddle wheel attached to the stern of the steamboat which it propels. thus, stern wheeler.

Webster 1913

Stern"-wheel` adjective

Definitions

1. Having a paddle wheel at the stern; as, a stern-wheel steamer.

Webster 1913

• (Mach.), an ingenious contrivance for converting reciprocating motion, as that of the working beam of a steam engine, into rotatory motion. It consists of a toothed wheel (called the sun wheel), firmly secured to the shaft it is desired to drive, and another wheel (called the planet wheel) secured to the end of a connecting rod. By the motion of the connecting rod, the planet wheel is made to circulate round the central wheel on the shaft, communicating to this latter a velocity of revolution the double of its own. G. Francis.

Webster 1913

• . (Mach.) See Sun and planet wheels, above.

Webster 1913

• . (a) The scape-wheel in a clock, which drives the pendulum. (b) The balance of a watch.

Webster 1913

• adjective of or relating to vehicles having three wheels
  three-wheel.
  
  • a three-wheel bike

WordNet

• adjective of or relating to vehicles having three wheels
  three-wheel.
  
  • a three-wheel bike

WordNet

• (Pottery), a machine on which earthenware is first rudely shaped by the hand of the potter from a mass of clay revolving rapidly on a disk or table carried by a vertical spindle; a potter's wheel.

Webster 1913

• a water wheel so constructed as to be moved by the ebb or flow of the tide.

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• to execute or torture, as a criminal by stretching him upon a wheel, and breaking his limbs with an iron bar; a mode of punishment formerly employed in some countries.

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• to turn the front wheels out of line with the hind wheels, so that one of them shall be against the body of the wagon.

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• to thwart or obstruct one in the execution of some design.

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• noun a wheel with teeth for making a row of perforations
  roulette.
  

WordNet

• a wheel with teeth or projections cut or set on its edge or circumference, for transmitting motion by their action on the engaging teeth of another wheel.

Webster 1913

• a hind wheel of a locomotive when it is not a driving wheel; also, one of the hind wheels of a carriage.

Webster 1913

• noun a mill that is powered by men or animals walking on a circular belt or climbing steps
  treadwheel; treadmill.
  

WordNet

• a horizontal water wheel, usually in the form of a short cylinder, to the circumference of which spiral vanes or floats, placed radially, are attached, turned by the impact of one or more streams of water, conducted so as to strike against the floats in the direction of a tangent to the cylinder.

Webster 1913

• adjective of or relating to vehicles with two wheels
  two-wheel.
  
  • a two-wheeled cart

WordNet

• adjective of or relating to vehicles with two wheels
  two-wheel.
  
  • a two-wheeled cart

WordNet

• a wheel having raised letters or characters on its periphery, and used in typewriters, printing telegraphs, etc.

Webster 1913

• a kind of turbine.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel of a wagon
  

WordNet

• (Mach.), a prime mover consisting of a wheel driven by the weight of men or animals walking either in it or on it; a treadwheel.

Webster 1913

• (Horol.), a piece or wheel which produces a sound shortly before the clock strikes.

Webster 1913

• noun a wheel with buckets attached to its rim; raises water from a stream or pond
  waterwheel.
  
• noun a wheel that rotates by direct action of water; a simple turbine
  waterwheel.
  

WordNet

Wa"ter wheel`

Definitions

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.
2. The paddle wheel of a steam vessel.
3. A wheel for raising water; a noria, or the like.

Webster 1913

• noun hoist so arranged that a rope unwinding from a wheel is wound onto a cylindrical drum or shaft coaxial with the wheel
  

WordNet

• (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.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of rotifers having a ciliated disk at the anterior end.

Webster 1913

• verb wheel somebody or something
  wheel.
  
• verb change directions as if revolving on a pivot
  wheel.
  
  • They wheeled their horses around and left

WordNet

• . (Physics) See under Barometer.

Webster 1913

• a boat with wheels, to be used either on water or upon inclined planes or railways.

Webster 1913

• noun large predatory North American bug that sucks the blood of other insects
  Arilus cristatus.
  

WordNet

• (Zoöl.), a large North American hemipterous insect (Prionidus cristatus) which sucks the blood of other insects. So named from the curious shape of the prothorax.

Webster 1913

• a carriage moving on wheels.

Webster 1913

• (Naut.), the chains or ropes connecting the wheel and rudder.

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• a machine for shaping the cogs of gear wheels; a gear cutter.

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• noun a draft horse harnessed behind others and nearest the wheels of a vehicle
  wheeler.
  

WordNet

• one of the horses nearest to the wheels, as opposed to a leader, or forward horse; called also wheeler.

Webster 1913

• a lathe for turning railway-car wheels.

Webster 1913

• noun an obsolete gunlock using flint and a revolving wheel
  

WordNet

• . (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.

Webster 1913

• (Min.), a variety of bournonite so named from the shape of its twin crystals. See Bournonite.

Webster 1913

• (Steam Engine), a pit in the ground, in which the lower part of the fly wheel runs.

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• a plow having one or two wheels attached, to render it more steady, and to regulate the depth of the furrow.

Webster 1913

• a press by which railway-car wheels are forced on, or off, their axles.

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• the place in which a water wheel is set.

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• (Naut.), a tiller rope. See under Tiller.

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• noun support consisting of a radial member of a wheel joining the hub to the rim
  radius; spoke.
  

WordNet

• (Needlework), a stitch resembling a spider's web, worked into the material, and not over an open space. Caulfeild & S. (Dict. of Needlework).

Webster 1913

• noun eastern Australian tree widely cultivated as a shade tree and for its glossy leaves and circular clusters of showy red to orange-scarlet flowers
  Stenocarpus sinuatus; firewheel tree.
  

WordNet

• (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.

Webster 1913

• (Zoöl.), any sea urchin of the genus Rotula having a round, flat shell.

Webster 1913

• (Arch.), a circular window having radiating mullions arranged like the spokes of a wheel. Cf. Rose window, under Rose.

Webster 1913

• adjective satellite round like a wheel
  

WordNet

Wheel"-shaped` adjective

Definitions

1. Shaped like a wheel.
2. (Bot.) Expanding into a flat, circular border at top, with scarcely any tube; as, a wheel-shaped corolla.

Webster 1913

Wheel"-worn` adjective

Definitions

1. Worn by the action of wheels; as, a wheel-worn road.

Webster 1913

• noun a vehicle that moves on wheels and usually has a container for transporting things or people
  
  • the oldest known wheeled vehicles were found in Sumer and Syria and date from around 3500 BC

WordNet

• a motor consisting of a wheel moved by wind.

Webster 1913

• noun gear with the thread of a worm
  

WordNet

• a cogwheel having teeth formed to fit into the spiral spaces of a screw called a worm, so that the wheel may be turned by, or may turn, the worm; called also worm gear, and sometimes tangent wheel. See Illust. of Worm gearing, above.

Webster 1913