Meaning

23 senses
  1. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

  2. A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

    (informal, with definite article)A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle.

    He fell asleep at the wheel.

  3. The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered.

    a circular helm to control the rudder of a vessel

  4. A spinning wheel.

  5. A potter's wheel.

  6. The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture.

    an instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or mutilates victims

  7. (slang)A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.

  8. A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.

    (dated, slang)A superuser on certain systems.

  9. (slang)The lowest straight in poker: ace-2-3-4-5.

  10. (slang)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.

  11. A wheelrim.

  12. A round portion of cheese.

Examples

383 sentences
  1. Take the wheel, Tom.

    Візьмись за кермо, Томе.

    ruДержи штурвал, Том.

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  2. His car has no wheels.

    Його машина не має колес.

    ruУ его автомобиля нет колёс.

    deSein Auto hat keine Räder.

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  3. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

    Під лежачий камінь вода не тече.

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  4. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.

    Не треба наново винаходити колесо.

    ruНе надо изобретать велосипед.

    deDu musst das Fahrrad kein zweites Mal erfinden.

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  5. Tom fell asleep at the wheel.

    ruТом уснул за рулём.

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Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 2
a circular device facilitating movement or transportation:
steering device in a vessel:
Русский
By meaning 2
a circular device facilitating movement or transportation:
steering device in a vessel:
Deutsch
By meaning 3
a circular device facilitating movement or transportation:
steering device in a vessel:
wheel rim:

Origin

From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from P

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, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish 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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: wheels
Singularwheel
Pluralwheels

regular

Synonyms

10 synonyms
wheel rim:rimB2
instrument of torture:breaking wheel
Close in meaning
  • an instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or mutilates victims:rack
  • 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:roulette wheel
  • a handwheel that is used for steering:steering wheel
  • a wheeled vehicle that has two wheels and is moved by foot pedals:bicyclebikecycle

Word family

280 related words

Collocations

7 patterns
  • behind the wheel
  • at the wheel
  • the ferris wheel
  • steering wheel
  • the steering wheel
  • ferris wheel
  • take the wheel

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
wheel — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto