wheel
Meanings
- A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.
- A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle.
- The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered.
- A spinning wheel.
- A potter's wheel.
- The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture.
- A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.
- A superuser on certain systems.
- The lowest straight in poker: ace-2-3-4-5.
- The best low hand in Lowball or High-low split poker: either ace-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-7, depending on the variant.
- A wheelrim.
- A round portion of cheese.
- To roll along on wheels.
- To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair.
- To ride a bicycle or tricycle.
- To make a circular movement.
- To move smoothly and easily, as if on wheels.
- To change direction quickly, turn, pivot, whirl, wheel around.
- To cause to change direction quickly, turn.
- To travel around in large circles, particularly in the air.
- To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to make or perform in a circle.
- To reload a track; to play a wheel-up.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷléh₂ Proto-Germanic *hweulō Old English hwēol Middle English whel English wheel From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlą, *hweulō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlóm, *kʷékʷlos, *kʷékʷléh₂, reduplication of *kʷel- (“to turn”) and a suffix (literally "(the thing that) turns and turns"). See also West Frisian tsjil, Dutch wiel, Danish hjul; also Tocharian B kokale (“cart, wagon”), Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “cycle, wheel”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 (caxra), Sanskrit चक्र (cakrá); and Latin colō (“to till, cultivate”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B käl- (“to bear; bring”), Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō, “to come into existence, become”), Old Church Slavonic коло (kolo, “wheel”), Albanian sjell (“to bring, carry, turn around”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (caraⁱti, “it circulates”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “it moves, wanders”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and kike.