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wheel

 
Dictionary: wheel   (hwēl, wēl) pronunciation
n.
  1. 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. Something resembling such a disk or ring in appearance or movement or having a wheel as its principal part or characteristic, as:
    1. The steering device on a vehicle.
    2. A potter's wheel.
    3. A water wheel.
    4. A spinning wheel.
    5. Games. A device used in roulette and other games of chance.
    6. A firework that rotates while burning.
    7. Informal. A bicycle.
    8. An instrument to which a victim was bound for torture during the Middle Ages.
  3. wheels Forces that provide energy, movement, or direction: the wheels of commerce.
  4. The act or process of turning; revolution or rotation.
  5. 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.
  6. wheels Slang. A motor vehicle or access thereto: Do you have wheels tonight?
  7. Slang. A person with a great deal of power or influence: a wheel in state government.

v., wheeled, wheel·ing, wheels.

v.tr.
  1. To roll, move, or transport on wheels or a wheel.
  2. To cause to turn around or as if around a central axis; revolve or rotate.
  3. To provide with wheels or a wheel.
v.intr.
  1. To turn around or as if around a central axis; revolve or rotate.
  2. To roll or move on or as if on wheels or a wheel.
  3. To fly in a curving or circular course: A flock of gulls wheeled just above the dock.
  4. To turn or whirl around in place; pivot: "The boy wheeled and the fried eggs leaped from his tray" (Ivan Gold).
  5. To reverse one's opinion or practice: Don't be surprised if the boss wheels about on that idea.
idioms:

at (or behind) the wheel

  1. Operating the steering mechanism of a vehicle; driving.
  2. Directing or controlling; in charge.
wheel and deal Informal.
  1. To engage in the advancement of one's own interests, especially in a canny, aggressive, or unscrupulous way.

[Middle English, from Old English hwēol.]


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Circular frame of hard material capable of turning on an axle. Wheels may be solid, partly solid, or spoked. The oldest known wheel was a wooden disk of planks held together by crosspieces. A pottery wheel or turntable was developed c. 3500 BC in Mesopotamia. The spoked wheel appeared c. 2000 BC on chariots in Asia Minor. Later developments included iron hubs that turned on greased axles. Perhaps the most important invention in human history, the wheel was essential to developing civilizations, and has remained essential to power generation, transportation, industrial manufacturing, and countless other applications.

For more information on wheel, visit Britannica.com.

Thesaurus: wheel
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noun

  1. A closed plane curve everywhere equidistant from a fixed point or something shaped like this: band1, circle, circuit, disk, gyre, ring1. Archaic orb. See geometry.
  2. Circular movement around a point or about an axis: circuit, circulation, circumvolution, gyration, revolution, rotation, turn, whirl. See geometry, repetition.

verb

  1. To move or cause to move in circles or around an axis: circle, circumvolve, gyrate, orbit, revolve, rotate, turn. See move/halt, repetition.
  2. To run and control (a motor vehicle): drive, motor, pilot. Slang tool. See move/halt.
  3. To turn or cause to turn in place, as on a hinge or fixed point, tracing an arclike path: pivot, swing. See move/halt.

Hacker Slang: wheel
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[from slang ‘big wheel’ for a powerful person] A person who has an active wheel bit. “We need to find a wheel to unwedge the hung tape drives.” (See wedged, sense 1.) The traditional name of security group zero in BSD (to which the major system-internal users like root belong) is ‘wheel’. Some vendors have expanded on this usage, modifying Unix so that only members of group ‘wheel’ can go root.


v. (of an aircraft) fly in a wide circle or curve: the plane wheeled and dived.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.


[Ar]

Wooden or metal disc attached at its central point to an axle or pivot in such a way that it can rotate freely to allow a vehicle or other mechanical device attached to the axle to move freely. Widely regarded as one of the single most important inventions ever made, the idea of a wheel seems to have cropped up in many cultures from early times. However, its application in pre-industrial societies is mainly confined to agriculturalist and pastoral societies in the Old World. One reason for this is that wheeled vehicles can only be used on relatively flat terrain or along constructed bearing surfaces such as roads and tracks. Another prerequisite is the availability of draught animals to pull wheeled vehicles.The earliest evidence of wheels comes from Uruk, Iraq, where depictions of what appear to be sledges mounted on four wheels appear on pictograms of the early 4th millennium bc. From the later 4th millennium bc there are a series of depictions of wheeled vehicles on pottery or as ceramic models across a wide swathe from the Near East via central Europe to the Atlantic coastlands: from the TRB culture in southern Poland, the late Copper Age of Hungary, the Kura-Araxes Culture in Transcaucasia, the Pit Grave cultures of southern Russia, and the Corded Ware cultures of northwest Europe. In all cases these wheels appear to be solid wooden discs with a thickened hub. Actual examples of such wheels have been found dating to the mid 3rd millennium bc, for example at De Eese, the Netherlands. Later, multi-part discs were made, often with three elements secured together with cross-pieces on either side.Spoked wheels appear from the mid 2nd millennium, first in the Transcaucasus region but soon afterwards within broadly the same areas that already use wheeled vehicles. By the 1st millennium bc iron tyres were being fixed to the outside of the rim of spoked wheels, proving to be a far more robust yet lightweight structure. Wheels were not used indigenously in the Americas, nor in Africa south of the Sahara.

 
wheel. Through the many millennia of the Paleolithic period and the Neolithic period no use of the wheel was known to humans. Its use was not known to the Native Americans until the Europeans introduced it. In the Old World it came into use in the Bronze Age, when oxen and horses were first used as draft animals and wheeled vehicles were devised. Wheels for vehicles were at first solid wooden disks; spoked wheels were introduced c.2700 B.C. The potter's wheel was invented in the Bronze Age, earlier pottery being made, like that of the Native Americans, without the use of the wheel. See gear; tire; wheel and axle.

Bibliography

See R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology (1955); E. Tunis, Wheels (1955); W. Owen et al., ed., Wheels (1972).


Essay: The invention of the wheel
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The wheel symbolizes the first invention to the extent that the unnecessary rediscovery of any simple idea prompts the cliché "reinventing the wheel." But the wheel is far from the earliest invention. In the history of humanity, the wheel is recent. It is not known for sure what the first invention was, but our ancestors were making a vast array of tools for a couple of million years before anyone got around to the wheel.

The wheel was invented before it was used for transportation. The first wheels were potter's wheels. Before the potter's wheel, nature was essentially without wheels of any kind, as only a few microscopic animals, certainly unknown to early humans, possess anything like wheels for any purpose, especially not for transportation.

As with most inventions, the wheel not only had predecessors, it also required a number of related inventions before it could be useful. This concept is exploited for humor in Johnny Hart's comic strip B.C. An early inventor appears with his wheel, although he has failed to invent the cart, to build the road, or to domesticate the animal that would make his wheel of any use. Instead, he travels on it by standing on projecting axles and simply rolls along, downhill one presumes.

Before there were wheels, people dragged things across the ground. To help them in this task they first devised various forms of yokes, so that two or more persons or animals could work together to drag the same heavy load. A later invention, sleds of one form or another, could do a better job of dragging something that was too heavy to lift. One virtue of a sled is that it has nothing to catch on uneven surfaces as it is dragged. Where there was ice and snow, sleds -- even in their highly individual form of skis (one sled for each foot) -- are especially effective. Mesolithic rock carvings from Scandinavia show people skiing. A sled -- also called a sledge -- is clearly depicted in a pictograph dating from about 3500 bce in Uruk in Mesopotamia. Just as clearly, one of the earliest wheeled vehicles, looking like a sled on wheels, is in the same drawing. Similarly, in one early cuneiform script the symbol for sledge existed first, a virtual pictogram of a sled with turned up runners. At a later date, the same symbol was used with wheels attached to mean cart. Thus, the cart was an easy step from the sled.

It is widely assumed that an immediate predecessor of the wheel consisted of logs used as rollers for moving such heavy objects as the stones used in building the pyramids. There is no evidence for this. Early wheels are from Mesopotamia, where there were few logs in existence. The Mesopotamian wheels featured three planks cut and joined to make a wheel. Because of the grain in wood, wheels made by slicing a round section from a log tend to fall apart rapidly. Wheels can simply be attached to the sides of a cart with short axles on which the wheels turn independently, but early wheels were fixed to long axles that rotated as the cart moved.

The first use of the wheel was probably not utilitarian at all but ceremonial: Carts were used to transport effigies of deities and important people. Since important dead people were carried in the first such carts, it might be said that the hearse was invented before other forms of cart. The use of the cart for the transport of goods appeared about 1000 years after its invention.

Wheeled vehicles were used in war from early on. In Mesopotamia, four-wheeled wagons served as platforms for javelin throwers; two-wheeled war chariots also appeared first in Mesopotamia. Chariots were easily maneuverable because of the use of the much lighter spoked wheels, which were first known in Egypt about 2000 bce.

The wheel spread from Mesopotamia quickly into Northwest Europe. Wheels also came into use around that time in India and China. In Egypt, the wheel became known about 2500 bce. However, the use of the wheel remained unknown in large parts of the world including Southeast Asia, Africa south of the Sahara, and Australia and Polynesia, until much more recent times. Carts for transport disappeared subsequently in many areas around the beginning of the common era, including the Far and Middle East, because of the introduction of the camel for transport. The camel was far better suited for travel through desert areas than oxen drawing carts; oxen are slow and require abundant water.

Sleds and their close relatives continued in use in the Americas until after the arrival of the Europeans, although wheeled toys are known from pre-Columbian Mexico as early as 300 ce. In the mountains of Mexico and the Andes, goods were transported by carriers or pack llamas traveling along trails unusable by wheeled vehicles.

Historians are not certain when wheels became part of mechanical devices; however, such use is older than in transport, since the potter's wheel preceded the appearance of wheeled vehicles by a thousand years. Eventually, of course, the wheel found many uses in cogs, gears, pulleys, and all sort of machines.

Word Tutor: wheel
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A solid disk or a rigid circular ring connected by spokes to a hub, designed to turn around an axle passed through the center.

pronunciation A unicycle has only one wheel.

Dream Symbol: Wheel
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A wheel may indicate completion of a project or the continuation of a familiar situation. A circle is also a spiritual sign of that which has no beginning and no end. Alternatively, the dreamer may be caught in a situation in which he or she feels they are going in a circle.


Wikipedia: Wheel
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Three wheels on an antique tricycle.

A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load (mass), or performing labour in machines. Common examples are found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle overcomes friction by facilitating motion by rolling. In order for wheels to rotate, a moment needs to be applied to the wheel about its axis, either by way of gravity, or by application of another external force. More generally the term is also used for other circular objects that rotate or turn, such as a ship's wheel, steering wheel and flywheel.

Contents

Etymology

The English word wheel comes from the Proto-Indo-European *kwekwlo-,[1] which was an extended form of the root *kwel- meaning "to revolve, move around". This is also the root of the Greek κυκλος kuklos, the Sanskrit chakra, and Persian charkh, all meaning "circle" or "wheel",[2] and also in Lithuanian, sukti means "to rotate". The Latin word rota is from the Proto-Indo-European *rotā-, the extended o-grade form of the root *ret- meaning "to roll, revolve".[3]

History

A depiction of onager-drawn carts on the Sumerian "battle standard of Ur" (circa 2500 BC)
A spoked wheel on display at The National Museum of Iran, in Tehran. The wheel is dated late 2nd millennium BC and was excavated at Choqa Zanbil.

Most authorities regard the wheel as one of the oldest and most important inventions, which originated in ancient Mesopotamia in the 5th millennium BC (Ubaid period), originally in the function of potter's wheels. Near the northern side of the Caucasus several graves were found, in which since 3700 BC people had been buried on wagons or carts (both types). The earliest depiction of what may be a wheeled vehicle (here a wagon—four wheels, two axles), is on the Bronocice pot, a ca. 3500 BC clay pot excavated in southern Poland.[4]

The wheel reached Europe and Western Asia in the 4th millennium BC, and the Indus Valley by the 3rd millennium BC. In China, the wheel is certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in ca. 1200 BC,[5] although Barbieri-Low (2000) argues for earlier Chinese wheeled vehicles, circa 2000 BC. Whether there was an independent "invention of the wheel" in East Asia or whether the concept made its way there after jumping the Himalayan barrier remains an open question.

Although they did not develop the wheel proper, the Olmec and certain other western hemisphere cultures seem to have approached it, as wheel-like worked stones have been found on objects identified as children's toys dating to about 1500 BC.[6] Early antiquity Nubians used wheels for spinning pottery and waterwheels.[7][8] It is thought that Nubian waterwheels may have been ox-driven[9] It is also known that Nubians used horse-driven chariots imported from Egypt.[10]

The invention of the wheel thus falls in the late Neolithic, and may be seen in conjunction with the other technological advances that gave rise to the early Bronze Age. Note that this implies the passage of several wheel-less millennia even after the invention of agriculture. Looking back even further, it is of some interest that although paleoanthropologists now date the emergence of anatomically modern humans to ca.150,000 years ago, 143,000 of those years were "wheel-less". That people with capacities fully equal to our own walked the earth for so long before conceiving of the wheel may be initially surprising, but populations were extremely small through most of this period and the wheel, which requires an axle and socket to actually be useful, is not as simple a device as it may seem. Making and balancing a wheel requires a skilled wheelwright.

Wide usage of the wheel was probably delayed because smooth roads were needed for wheels to be effective.[11] Carrying goods on the back would have been the preferred method of transportation over surfaces that contained many obstacles. The lack of developed roads prevented wide adoption of the wheel for transportation until well into the 20th century in less developed areas.

Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle. Because of the structure of wood a horizontal slice of a trunk is not suitable, as it does not have the structural strength to support weight without collapsing; rounded pieces of longitudinal boards are required.

The spoked wheel was invented more recently, and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. The earliest known examples are in the context of the Andronovo culture, dating to ca 2000 BC. Shortly later, horse cultures of the Caucasus region used horse-drawn spoked-wheel war chariots for the greater part of three centuries. They moved deep into the Greek peninsula where they joined with the existing Mediterranean peoples to give rise, eventually, to classical Greece after the breaking of Minoan dominance and consolidations led by pre-classical Sparta and Athens. Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around the wheel in the 1st millennium BC. The spoked wheel had been in continued use without major modification until the 1870s CE, when wire wheels and pneumatic tires were invented.[12]

The invention of the wheel has also been important for technology in general, important applications including the water wheel, the cogwheel (see also antikythera mechanism), the spinning wheel, and the astrolabe or torquetum. More modern descendants of the wheel include the propeller, the jet engine, the flywheel (gyroscope) and the turbine.

Mechanics and function

The wheel is a device that enables efficient movement of an object across a surface where there is a force pressing the object to the surface. Common examples are a cart drawn by a horse, and the rollers on an aircraft flap mechanism.

Wheels are used in conjunction with axles, either the wheel turns on the axle, or the axle turns in the object body. The mechanics are the same in either case.

The low resistance to motion (compared to dragging) is explained as follows (refer to friction):

  • the normal force at the sliding interface is the same.
  • the sliding distance is reduced for a given distance of travel.
  • the coefficient of friction at the interface is usually lower.

Bearings are used to help reduce friction at the interface. In the simplest and oldest case the bearing is just a round hole through which the axle passes (a "plain bearing").

Example:

  • If dragging a 100 kg object for 10 m along a surface with the coefficient of friction μ = 0.5, the normal force is 981 N and the work done (required energy) is (work=force x distance) 981 × 0.5 × 10 = 4905 joules.
  • Now give the object 4 wheels. The normal force between the 4 wheels and axles is the same (in total) 981 N, assume, for wood, μ = 0.25, and say the wheel diameter is 1000 mm and axle diameter is 50 mm. So while the object still moves 10 m the sliding frictional surfaces only slide over each other a distance of 0.5 m. The work done is 981 x 0.25 x 0.5 = 123 joules; the friction is reduced to 1/25 of that of dragging.

Additional energy is lost at the wheel to road interface. This is termed rolling resistance which is predominantly a deformation loss.

The wheel alone is not a machine, but when attached to an axle in conjunction with bearing, it forms the wheel and axle, one of the simple machines. A driven wheel is an example of a wheel and axle. Note that wheels predate driven wheels by about 6000 years.

Stability

Static stability of a wheeled vehicle

For unarticulated wheels, climbing obstacles will cause the body of the vehicle to rotate. If the rotation angle is too high, the vehicle will become statically unstable and tip over. At high speeds, a vehicle can become dynamically unstable, able to be tipped over by an obstacle smaller than its static stability limit. Without articulation, this can be an impossible position from which to recover.

For front-to-back stability, the maximum height of an obstacle which an unarticulated wheeled vehicle can climb is a function of the wheelbase and the horizontal and vertical position of the center of mass (CM).

The critical angle is the angle at which the center of mass of the vehicle begins to pass outside of the contact points of the wheels. Past the critical angle, the reaction forces at the wheels can no longer counteract the moment created by the vehicle's weight, and the vehicle will tip over. At the critical angle, the vehicle is marginally stable. The critical angle θcrit can be found by solving the equation:

\theta_{crit} = \tan^{-1} \left ( \frac {x_{cm} + r \sin \theta_{crit}} {y_{cm} + r \sin \theta_{crit}} \right )

where

r is the radius of the wheels;
xcm is the horizontal distance of the center of mass from the rear axle; and
ycm is the vertical distance of the center of mass from the axles.

For small wheels, this formula can be simplified to:

\theta_{crit} = \tan^{-1} \left ( \frac {x_{cm}} {y_{cm}} \right )

The maximum height h of an obstacle can be found by the equation:

\ h = w \sin \theta_{crit}

where w is the wheelbase.

Alternatives

While wheels are used for ground transport very widely, there are alternatives, some of which are suitable for terrain where wheels are ineffective. Alternative methods for ground transport without wheels (wheel-less transport) include:

In symbology

The Romani flag
In the Unicode computer standard, the Dharmacakra is called the "Wheel of Dharma" and found in the eight-spoked form. It is represented as U+2638 (☸)

The wheel has also become a strong cultural and spiritual metaphor for a cycle or regular repetition (see chakra, reincarnation, Yin and Yang among others). As such and because of the difficult terrain, wheeled vehicles were forbidden in old Tibet.

The winged wheel is a symbol of progress, seen in many contexts including the coat of arms of Panama and the logo of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

The introduction of spoked (chariot) wheels in the Middle Bronze Age appear to have carried somewhat of a prestige. The solar wheel appears to have a significance in Bronze Age religion, replacing the earlier concept of a Solar barge with the more "modern" and technologically advanced solar chariot.

The wheel is also the prominent figure on the flag of India. The wheel in this case represents law (dharma). It also appears in the flag of the Romani people, hinting to their nomadic history and their Indian origins. The wheel can also appears in the flag of Mahl Kshatiyas Kings (kattiri buvana maha radun).

The flag of Mahl Kshatriyas

In recent times, the custom aftermarket car/automobile roadwheel has become a status symbol. These wheels are often incorrectly referred to as "rims". The term "rim" is incorrect because the rim is only the outer portion of a wheel (where the tire is mounted), just as with a coffee cup or meteor crater. These "rims" have a great deal of variation, and are often highly polished and very shiny. Some custom "rims" include a bearing-mounted, free-spinning disc which continues to rotate by inertia after the automobile is stopped. In slang, these are referred to as "Spinners".

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ "wheel". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=wheel. 
  2. ^ kwel-1. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  3. ^ ret- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  4. ^ Waza z Bronocic (in Polish)
  5. ^ Dyer, Gwynne, War: the new edition, p. 159: Vintage Canada Edition, Randomhouse of Canada, Toronto, ON
  6. ^ Ekholm, Gordon F (1945). "Wheeled Toys in Mexico". American Antiquity 11. 
  7. ^ CRAFTS; Uncovering Treasures of Ancient Nubia; New York Times
  8. ^ [http://wysinger.homestead.com/kush.html Ancient Sudan: (aka Kush & Nubia) City of Meroe (4th B.C. to 325 A.D.)]
  9. ^ What the Nubians Ate
  10. ^ The Cambridge History of Africa
  11. ^ How The Wheel Developed
  12. ^ bookrags.com - Wheel and axle

Translations: Wheel
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - hjul, rat, ror, spinderok, pottemagerhjul, svingning, drejning
v. tr. - køre, trille, lade svinge, kredse, rulle, cykle
v. intr. - cykle, køre, kredse

idioms:

  • at the wheel    ved rattet
  • big wheel    stor kanon
  • on wheels    på hjul, levering
  • wheel and deal    være om sig, handle på egen hånd, bruge smarte metoder
  • wheel clamp    hjullås
  • wheel of fortune    lykkehjul
  • wheels within wheels    med lodder og trisser, en kompliceret affære

Nederlands (Dutch)
wiel, rad, stuur, fiets, zwenken, rijden, iets op wielen duwen

Français (French)
n. - roue, roulette, volant, (Naut) (roue) d'un gouvernail, rouage (d'un mécanisme), (fig) rouage, (Hist) roue, (Jeux) roue (à la roulette), bagnole (npl), voiture (npl)
v. tr. - pousser (chariot, poussette)
v. intr. - tournoyer (oiseau), faire demi-tour, braquer fortement (voiture), virer de bord (bateau)

idioms:

  • at the wheel    au volant
  • big wheel    la grande roue
  • on wheels    sur roues
  • wheel and deal    magouiller
  • wheel clamp    sabot de Denver
  • wheel of fortune    roue de la fortune
  • wheels within wheels    être plus compliqué que cela n'y paraît

Deutsch (German)
n. - Rad, Steuerrad, Lenkrad, Kreisbewegung, Refrain, (Slang) Auto
v. - schwenken, rollen, kreisen, kehrtmachen, wenden

idioms:

  • at the wheel    am Steuer, am Ruder
  • big wheel    Riesenrad
  • on wheels    auf Rädern, (fig) schnell
  • wheel and deal    mauscheln
  • wheel clamp    Parkkralle
  • wheel of fortune    Glücksrad
  • wheels within wheels    komplizierter Mechanismus, verwickelte od. verborgene Sache

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - τροχός, ρόδα, πηδάλιο, τιμόνι, περιστροφή, τροχός βασανιστηρίων, (καθομ.) βολάν, (πληθ.) (καθομ.) μηχανισμοί, μεταφορικό μέσο
v. - κυλώ, τσουλώ, σπρώχνω (καροτσάκι), περιστρέφω/-ομαι, (στριφο)γυρίζω

idioms:

  • at the wheel    στο τιμόνι
  • big wheel    μεγαλουσιάνος, επιφανής
  • on wheels    ομαλά, χωρίς πρόβλημα
  • wheel and deal    μηχανορραφώ, δολοπλοκώ
  • wheel clamp    δαγκάνα (για παράνομα σταθμευμένο αυτοκίνητο)
  • wheel of fortune    ο τροχός της τύχης
  • wheels within wheels    περίπλοκες αλληλεξαρτήσεις

Italiano (Italian)
spingere, girare, tirare, trasportare, ruotare, andare in bicicletta, pedalare, andare su ruote, ruota, rotella, volante

idioms:

  • at the wheel    al volante
  • on (oiled) wheels    su rotelle, scorrevolmente
  • wheel and deal    combinar truffe
  • wheel clamp    perno
  • wheel of fortune    ruota della fortuna
  • wheels within wheels    pasticcio

Português (Portuguese)
n. - roda (f), volante (m), giro (m)
v. - rodar, mover em forma circular

idioms:

  • at the wheel    no volante
  • big wheel    grande roda
  • on (oiled) wheels    engrenagens (com óleo)
  • wheel and deal    ação inescrupulosa (f)
  • wheel clamp    tamanco
  • wheel of fortune    roda da fortuna (f)
  • wheels within wheels    bastante complicado

Русский (Russian)
колесо, рулевое колесо, кружение, рулетка, важное лицо, сеть театров/уве- селительных заведений, припев, катить, катиться, вертеться, вертеть, полностью изменить свою позицию, ехать на велосипеде

idioms:

  • at the wheel    быть за рулем, стоять во главе
  • big wheel    "большая шишка"
  • on (oiled) wheels    "как по маслу"
  • wheel and deal    заправлять чем-л., обделывать делишки
  • wheel clamp    колодка, одеваемая на колесо неправильно припаркованного автомобиля
  • wheel of fortune    колесо фортуны
  • wheels within wheels    сложное устройство, секретные службы

Español (Spanish)
n. - rueda, timón, volante, ruleta, rodillo, rodaje, engranaje
v. tr. - hacer rodar, mover o llevar sobre ruedas, hacer girar, proveer de ruedas
v. intr. - girar, rodar, moverse sobre ruedas, montar bicicleta

idioms:

  • at the wheel    al volante, al timón
  • big wheel    pieza importante (persona importante en una organización)
  • on wheels    sobre ruedas
  • wheel and deal    trapichear, andar en tejemanejes
  • wheel clamp    cepo para vehículos
  • wheel of fortune    la rueda de la fortuna
  • wheels within wheels    asunto complicadísimo, maquinaria intrincada, fuerzas esotéricas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hjul, trissa, bilratt, skiva, cykel, rotation
v. - rulla, köra, skjuta, snurra, rotera, kretsa, cykla

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
轮子, 轮, 车轮, 旋转, 转动, 装以车轮, 盘旋, 转弯

idioms:

  • at the wheel    在驾驶, 控制, 掌管
  • big wheel    重要人物, 具有影响力的人
  • on wheels    顺利, 用车运...
  • wheel and deal    独立行动, 做负责人
  • wheel clamp    车辆固定夹
  • wheel of fortune    抓阄转轮
  • wheels within wheels    复杂的结构

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 輪子, 輪, 車輪
v. tr. - 旋轉, 轉動, 裝以車輪
v. intr. - 旋轉, 盤旋, 轉彎

idioms:

  • at the wheel    在駕駛, 控制, 掌管
  • big wheel    重要人物, 具有影響力的人
  • on wheels    順利, 用車運...
  • wheel and deal    獨立行動, 做負責人
  • wheel clamp    車輛固定夾
  • wheel of fortune    抓鬮轉輪
  • wheels within wheels    複雜的結構

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 수레바퀴, 물레바퀴, (자동차의) 핸들
v. tr. - 수레로 나르다, ~에 바퀴를 달다, 운전하다
v. intr. - 선회하다, 방향을 바꾸다, 의견의 방향을 전환하다

idioms:

  • at the wheel    키를 잡다, 지배력을 갖다
  • big wheel    세력가, 거물

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 車輪, ハンドル, 舵輪, 回転, ろくろ, 自転車
v. - 動かす, 車で運ぶ, 自転車に乗る, 向きを変える, 旋回する

idioms:

  • at the wheel    運転して, 支配して
  • on (oiled) wheels    軌道にのる
  • potter's wheel    ろくろ
  • spinning wheel    糸車
  • wheel and deal    手練手管を尽くす
  • wheel clamp    駐車違反車両への輪留
  • wheel of fortune    運命の車, 回転円板式賭博器, 回転抽選器
  • wheels within wheels    複雑な動機

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عجله, دولاب, دراجه, طارة الدفه, دولاب التعذيب (فعل) يدور, يدير, يبرم, يدحرج, يتدحرج‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮גלגל, אופן, הגה, גלגל ההגה, סיבוב (על ציר), גלגל עינויים, שורות קצרות המסיימות בית-שיר‬
v. tr. - ‮דחף, גרר (עגלה), הסיע‬
v. intr. - ‮פנה, התגלגל, חג, הסתובב במעגל‬


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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Hacker Slang. The Jargon File. Copyright © 2007.  Read more
US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Essay. History of Science and Technology, edited by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Dream Symbol. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wheel" Read more
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