wheel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A solid disk or a rigid circular ring connected by spokes to a hub, designed to turn around an axle passed through the center.
2. n. Something resembling such a disk or ring in appearance or movement or having a wheel as its principal part or characteristic, as:
3. n. The steering device on a vehicle.
4. n. A potter's wheel.
5. n. A water wheel.
6. n. A spinning wheel.
7. n. Games A device used in roulette and other games of chance.
8. n. A firework that rotates while burning.
9. n. Informal A bicycle.
10. n. An instrument to which a victim was bound for torture during the Middle Ages.
11. n. Forces that provide energy, movement, or direction: the wheels of commerce.
12. n. The act or process of turning; revolution or rotation.
13. n. A military maneuver executed in order to change the direction of movement of a formation, as of troops or ships, in which the formation is maintained while the outer unit describes an arc and the inner or center unit remains stationary as a pivot.
14. n. Slang A motor vehicle or access thereto: Do you have wheels tonight?
15. n. Slang A person with a great deal of power or influence: a wheel in state government.
16. v. To roll, move, or transport on wheels or a wheel.
17. v. To cause to turn around or as if around a central axis; revolve or rotate.
18. v. To provide with wheels or a wheel.
19. v. To turn around or as if around a central axis; revolve or rotate.
20. v. To roll or move on or as if on wheels or a wheel.
21. v. To fly in a curving or circular course: A flock of gulls wheeled just above the dock.
22. v. To turn or whirl around in place; pivot: "The boy wheeled and the fried eggs leaped from his tray” ( Ivan Gold).
23. v. To reverse one's opinion or practice: Don't be surprised if the boss wheels about on that idea.
24. idiom. at Operating the steering mechanism of a vehicle; driving.
25. idiom. at Directing or controlling; in charge.
26. idiom. wheel and deal Informal To engage in the advancement of one's own interests, especially in a canny, aggressive, or unscrupulous way.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A movement in drill in which a line changes front without destroying the alinement.
2. n. The driving-wheel of a bicycle which has a releasing-device for freeing the pedals for coasting.
3. n. A circular frame or solid disk turning on an axis. Wheels, as applied to vehicles, usually consist of a nave, into which are inserted spokes or radii, connecting it with the periphery or circular ring. (See car-wheel (with cut); also cuts under car-track and felly.) Wheels are most important agents in machinery, being employed in a variety of forms and combinations for a great variety of purposes, as for transmitting motion, regulating velocity, converting one species of motion into another, reducing friction, equalizing the effect of forces applied in an intermittent or irregular manner, etc.
4. n. Any instrument, apparatus, machine, or other object shaped like a wheel, or the essential feature of which is a wheel: as, a mill-wheel, a spinning-wheel, or a potters' wheel.
5. n. Nautical, a circular frame with handles projecting from the periphery, and an axle on which are wound the ropes or chains which connect with the rudder for steering a ship; a steering-wheel. Where a ship is steered by steam, in place of an ordinary wheel a small wheel is used, by turning which steam is admitted to the engines which turn the barrel on which the wheel-rope is wound.
6. n. An instrument of torture. See to break on the wheel, under break.
7. n. A firework of a circular shape which revolves on an axis, while burning by the reaction of the escaping gases. See catharine-wheel, 3, and pinwheel, 3.
8. n. plural Figuratively, a carriage; a chariot.
9. n. One of the attributes of Fortune, the emblem of mutability.
10. n. A bicycle or a tricycle.
11. n. In zoology:
12. n. The characteristic organ of a wheel-animalcule; the trochal disk of a rotifer; a wheel-organ (which see). See cuts under Rotifer, Rotifera, and trochal.
13. n. Some discoid or wheel-shaped calcareous or silicious concretion, as of an echinoderm or a sponge; a wheel-spicule.
14. n. A circular course or motion; a whirling round; a revolution; rotation; also, a wheeling, turning, or bending.
15. n. A motive power; in the plural, machinery; hence, a principle of life or motion.
16. n. The burden of a song; a refrain: perhaps in allusion to its regular recurrence.
17. n. A factory for grinding cutlery.
18. n. A dollar.
19. n. In embroidery and fancy needlework, an opening, not necessarily circular, filled with radiating bars or brides of thread. It is a common form of decoration for collars and similar washable garments. Sometimes the radiating lines are interspersed with loops, festoons, and the like, or are of different lengths, so that a part of the opening will be filled with more bands than another part, producing diversity of pattern.
20. n. See ward, 11.
21. n. Figuratively, something superfluous or useless.
22. n. to subject one to a punishment out of all proportion to the gravity of the offense and the importance of the offender; hence, to employ great means or exertions for the attainment of trifling ends.
23. n. A device for dividing a circle into any number of equal parts.
24. n. (See also breast wheel, bull-wheel, catharine-wheel, cog-wheel, crown-wheel, dial-wheel, flange-wheel, measuring-wheel, pinwheel.)
25. To cause to turn, or to move in a circle; make to rotate, revolve, or change direction.
26. To convey on wheels or in a vehicle mounted on wheels.
27. To make or perform in a circle; give a circular direction or form to.
28. To provide with a wheel or wheels: as, to wheel a cart.
29. To cause to move on or as on wheels; rotate; cause to turn: as, to wheel a rank of soldiers.
30. To turn on a wheel.
31. In tanning, to submit to the action of a pin-wheel. See pinwheel, 2.
32. To shape by means of the wheel, as in pottery. See potters' wheel (under potter), and throw, transitive verb, 2.
33. To break upon the wheel. See break.
34. To turn on or as on an axis or about a center; rotate; revolve.
35. To change direction of course, as if moving on a pivot or center.
36. To move in a circular or spiral course.
37. To take a circular course; return upon one's steps; hence, to wander; go out of the straight way.
38. To travel smoothly; go at a round pace; trundle along; roll forward.
39. To move on wheels; specifically, to ride a bicycle or tricycle; travel by means of a bicycle or tricycle.
40. To change or reverse one's opinion or course of action: frequently with about.
41. n. An old spelling of wheal.
42. n. See wheal.
43. n. An erroneous dialectal form of weel.

Wiktionary

1. n. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.
2. n. A wheel-like device used as an instrument of torture or punishment.
3. n. informal, with "the" A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle.
4. n. nautical The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered.
5. n. slang A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.
6. n. poker slang The lowest straight in poker: ace, 2, 3, 4, 5.
7. n. automotive wheel rim
8. n. a round portion of cheese
9. v. To roll along as on wheels.
10. v. intransitive To travel around in large circles, particularly in the air.
11. v. transitive To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. Any instrument having the form of, or chiefly consisting of, a wheel.
3. n. A spinning wheel. See under Spinning.
4. n. An instrument of torture formerly used.
5. n. (Naut.) A circular frame having handles on the periphery, and an axle which is so connected with the tiller as to form a means of controlling the rudder for the purpose of steering.
6. n. (Pottery) A potter's wheel. See under Potter.
7. n. (Pyrotechny) A firework which, while burning, is caused to revolve on an axis by the reaction of the escaping gases.
8. n. (Poetry) The burden or refrain of a song.
9. n. A bicycle or a tricycle; a velocipede.
10. n. A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form; a disk; an orb.
11. n. A turn revolution; rotation; compass.
12. v. To convey on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
13. v. To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to cause to gyrate; to make or perform in a circle.
14. v. To turn on an axis, or as on an axis; to revolve; to more about; to rotate; to gyrate.
15. v. To change direction, as if revolving upon an axis or pivot; to turn.
16. v. To go round in a circuit; to fetch a compass.
17. v. To roll forward.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. wheel somebody or something
2. n. a simple machine consisting of a circular frame with spokes (or a solid disc) that can rotate on a shaft or axle (as in vehicles or other machines)
3. n. 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
4. v. ride a bicycle
5. n. a circular helm to control the rudder of a vessel
6. n. a wheeled vehicle that has two wheels and is moved by foot pedals
7. n. a handwheel that is used for steering
8. n. an instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or mutilates victims
9. n. forces that provide energy and direction
10. v. change directions as if revolving on a pivot
11. v. move along on or as if on wheels or a wheeled vehicle