a circular frame or disk arranged to revolve on an axis, as on or in vehicles or machinery.
2.
any machine, apparatus, instrument, etc., shaped like this or having a circular frame, disk, or revolving drum as an essential feature: a potter's wheel; roulette wheel; spinning wheel.
spin one's wheels, Informal. to expend or waste effort to no avail: He spun his wheels on that project for two years.
28.
wheel and deal, Informal. to operate dynamically for one's own profit or benefit.
29.
wheels within wheels, an involved interaction of motives or agencies operating to produce the final result: Government agencies are a study of wheels within wheels.
Origin: before 900; (noun) Middle English whel(e), Old English hwēol, hweohl; cognate with Dutch wiel,Old Norse hjōl; akin to Greek kýklos (see cycle); (v.) Middle English, derivative of the noun
O.E. hweol, hweogol, from P.Gmc. *khwekhwlan, *khwegwlan (cf. O.N. hvel, O.Swed. hiughl, O.Fris. hwel, M.Du. weel), from PIE *k(w)e-k(w)lo- "wheel, circle" (cf. O.C.S. kolo "wheel"), a reduplicated form from base *k(w)el- "to go round" (see cycle). Figurative sense is early
14c. The verb meaning "to turn like a wheel" is attested from early 13c.; trans. sense attested from late 14c. Slang wheels "a car" is recorded from 1959. Wheeler-dealer is from 1950s, a rhyming elaboration of dealer; wheelie is from 1966. Wheelchair first recorded c.1700.
tv. & in. to drive a car. : Let's wheel my heap over to Marty's place.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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