WHEEL, n.

1. A circular frame of wood, iron, or other metal, consisting of a nave or hub, into which are inserted spokes which sustain a rim or felly; the whole turning on an axis. The name is also given to a solid circular or round piece of wood or metal, which revolves on an axis. The wheel and axle constitute one of the mechanical powers.
2. A circular body. – Shak.
3. A carriage that moves on wheels. – Pope.
4. An instrument for torturing criminals; as, an examination made by the rack and the wheel. – Addison.
5. A machine for spinning thread of various kinds.
6. Rotation; revolution; turn; as, the vicissitude and wheel of things. – South.
7. A turning about; a compass. He throws his flight in many an airy wheel. – Milton.
8. In pottery, a round board turned by a lathe in a horizontal position, on which the clay is shaped by the hand.

1. To turn on an axis. – Bentley.
2. To turn; to move round; as, a body of troops wheel to the right or left.
3. To fetch a compass. Then wheeling down the keep of heav'n he flies. – Pope.
4. To roll forward. Thunder / Must wheel on th' earth, devouring where it rolls. – Milton.

1. To convey on wheels; as, to wheel a load of hay or wood.
2. To put into a rotary motion; to cause to turn round. – Milton.

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.
   
   

   The gasping charioteer beneath the wheel
   Of his own car. Dryden.

2. To convey on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle] as, to wheel a load of hay or wood.
3. To turn on an axis, or as on an axis; to revolve; to more about; to rotate; to gyrate.
   
   

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

4. Any instrument having the form of, or chiefly consisting of, a wheel.
   
   
   Specifically: --

   (a)

5. 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.

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

6. To change direction, as if revolving upon an axis or pivot; to turn; as, the troops wheeled to the right.
   
   

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

7. A bicycle or a tricycle; a velocipede.
8. To go round in a circuit; to fetch a compass.
   
   

   Then wheeling down the steep of heaven he flies. Pope.

9. A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form; a disk; an orb.
   
   
   Milton.
10. To roll forward.
    
    

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

11. 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 aëry 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 (Zoöl.), 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 (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. -- 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 (Zoö]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.