wheel
wheel
/wiːl/
on/in vehicles
1 countable one of the round objects under a car, bicycle, bus, etc. that turns when it moves He braked suddenly, causing the front wheels to skid.
the rear wheels of the car
She was killed when she was crushed under the wheels of a bus.
I had lightweight wheels on my bike.
tractors with powered front wheels
on wheels One of the boys was pushing the other along in a little box on wheels.
Collocations
adjective
wheel + verb
wheel + verb
wheel + noun
preposition
on wheel
sunder the wheels
Always keep both hands on the wheel.
behind the wheel Never get behind the wheel if you're too tired.
This is the first time I've sat behind the wheel since the accident.
at the wheel A car swept past with Laura at the wheel.
Do you want to take the wheel (= drive) now?
She fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a tree.
Collocations
verb + wheel
wheel + noun
preposition
at the wheel
behind the wheel
phrases
keep your hands on the steering wheel
put your hands on the steering wheel
take your hands off the steering wheel
3 wheels plural (informal) a car At last he had his own wheels.
in machine
gear wheels
organization/system
5 wheels plural wheel (of something) an organization or a system that seems to work like a complicated machine that is difficult to understand the wheels of bureaucracy/commerce/government
It was Rob's idea. I merely set the wheels in motion (= started the process).
-wheeled
(in adjectives)
having the number or type of wheels mentioned
a sixteen-wheeled lorry
-wheeler
(in nouns)
a car, bicycle, etc. with the number of wheels mentioned
a three-wheeler
Idioms
wheel
/wiːl/
move something/somebody with wheels
1 transitive wheel something (+ adv./prep.) to push or pull something that has wheels She wheeled her bicycle across the road.
2 transitive wheel somebody/something (+ adv./prep.) to move somebody/something that is in or on something that has wheels The nurse wheeled him along the corridor.
move in circle
Birds wheeled above us in the sky.
turn quickly
4 intransitive, transitive to turn quickly or suddenly and face the opposite direction; to make somebody/something do this (+ adv./prep.) She wheeled around and started running.
Jim wheeled back to face me.
wheel somebody/something (+ adv./prep.) He wheeled his horse back to the gate.
He wheeled his horse around.
Idioms
Phrasal Verbs
Word Origin
Old English hwēol (noun), of Germanic origin, from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit cakra ‘wheel, circle’ and Greek kuklos ‘circle’.