3. A bicycle or a tricycle; a velocipede.
4. A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form;
a disk; an orb. --Milton.
5. A turn revolution; rotation; compass.
According to the common vicissitude and wheel of
things, the proud and the insolent, after long
trampling upon others, come at length to be trampled
upon themselves. --South.
[He] throws his steep flight in many an a["e]ry
wheel. --Milton.
{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} (Zo["o]l.), 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} (Zo["o]l.), 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} (Zo["o]l.), 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}.
2. A maker of wheels; a wheelwright. [Obs.]
3. A wheel horse. See under {Wheel}.
4. (Naut.) A steam vessel propelled by a paddle wheel or by
paddle wheels; -- used chiefly in the terms side-wheeler
and stern-wheeler.
5. A worker on sewed muslin. [Eng.]
6. (Zo["o]l.) The European goatsucker. [Prov. Eng.]