Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   3. A bicycle or a tricycle; a velocipede.

   4. A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form;
      a disk; an orb. --Milton.

   5. A turn revolution; rotation; compass.

            According to the common vicissitude and wheel of
            things, the proud and the insolent, after long
            trampling upon others, come at length to be trampled
            upon themselves.                      --South.

            [He] throws his steep flight in many an a["e]ry
            wheel.                                --Milton.

   {A wheel within a wheel}, or {Wheels within wheels}, a
      complication of circumstances, motives, etc.

   {Balance wheel}. See in the Vocab.

   {Bevel wheel}, {Brake wheel}, {Cam wheel}, {Fifth wheel},
   {Overshot wheel}, {Spinning wheel}, etc. See under {Bevel},
      {Brake}, etc.

   {Core wheel}. (Mach.)
      (a) A mortise gear.
      (b) A wheel having a rim perforated to receive wooden
          cogs; the skeleton of a mortise gear.

   {Measuring wheel}, an odometer, or perambulator.

   {Wheel and axle} (Mech.), one of the elementary machines or
      mechanical powers, consisting of a wheel fixed to an axle,
      and used for raising great weights, by applying the power
      to the circumference of the wheel, and attaching the
      weight, by a rope or chain, to that of the axle. Called
      also {axis in peritrochio}, and {perpetual lever}, -- the
      principle of equilibrium involved being the same as in the
      lever, while its action is continuous. See {Mechanical
      powers}, under {Mechanical}.

   {Wheel animal}, or {Wheel animalcule} (Zo["o]l.), any one of
      numerous species of rotifers having a ciliated disk at the
      anterior end.

   {Wheel barometer}. (Physics) See under {Barometer}.

   {Wheel boat}, a boat with wheels, to be used either on water
      or upon inclined planes or railways.

   {Wheel bug} (Zo["o]l.), a large North American hemipterous
      insect ({Prionidus cristatus}) which sucks the blood of
      other insects. So named from the curious shape of the
      prothorax.

   {Wheel carriage}, a carriage moving on wheels.

   {Wheel chains}, or {Wheel ropes} (Naut.), the chains or ropes
      connecting the wheel and rudder.

   {Wheel cutter}, a machine for shaping the cogs of gear
      wheels; a gear cutter.

   {Wheel horse}, one of the horses nearest to the wheels, as
      opposed to a leader, or forward horse; -- called also
      {wheeler}.

   {Wheel lathe}, a lathe for turning railway-car wheels.

   {Wheel lock}.
      (a) A letter lock. See under {Letter}.
      (b) A kind of gunlock in which sparks were struck from a
          flint, or piece of iron pyrites, by a revolving wheel.
      (c) A kind of brake a carriage.

   {Wheel ore} (Min.), a variety of bournonite so named from the
      shape of its twin crystals. See {Bournonite}.

   {Wheel pit} (Steam Engine), a pit in the ground, in which the
      lower part of the fly wheel runs.

   {Wheel plow}, or {Wheel plough}, a plow having one or two
      wheels attached, to render it more steady, and to regulate
      the depth of the furrow.

   {Wheel press}, a press by which railway-car wheels are forced
      on, or off, their axles.

   {Wheel race}, the place in which a water wheel is set.

   {Wheel rope} (Naut.), a tiller rope. See under {Tiller}.

   {Wheel stitch} (Needlework), a stitch resembling a spider's
      web, worked into the material, and not over an open space.
      --Caulfeild & S. (Dict. of Needlework).

   {Wheel tree} (Bot.), a tree ({Aspidosperma excelsum}) of
      Guiana, which has a trunk so curiously fluted that a
      transverse section resembles the hub and spokes of a
      coarsely made wheel. See {Paddlewood}.

   {Wheel urchin} (Zo["o]l.), any sea urchin of the genus
      {Rotula} having a round, flat shell.

   {Wheel window} (Arch.), a circular window having radiating
      mullions arranged like the spokes of a wheel. Cf. {Rose
      window}, under {Rose}.

Brake \Brake\ (br[=a]k), n. [OE. brake; cf. LG. brake an
   instrument for breaking flax, G. breche, fr. the root of E.
   break. See Break, v. t., and cf. {Breach}.]
   1. An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part
      of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the
      fiber.

   2. An extended handle by means of which a number of men can
      unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine.

   3. A baker's kneading though. --Johnson.

   4. A sharp bit or snaffle.

            Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit.
                                                  --Gascoigne.

   5. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith
      is shoeing him; also, an inclosure to restrain cattle,
      horses, etc.

            A horse . . . which Philip had bought . . . and
            because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of
            iron bars.                            --J. Brende.

   6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or
      engine, which enables it to turn.

   7. (Mil.) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow
      and ballista.

   8. (Agric.) A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after
      plowing; a drag.

   9. A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by
      friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure
      of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets
      against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever
      against a wheel or drum in a machine.

   10. (Engin.) An apparatus for testing the power of a steam
       engine, or other motor, by weighing the amount of
       friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.

   11. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in
       horses.

   12. An ancient instrument of torture. --Holinshed.

   {Air brake}. See {Air brake}, in the Vocabulary.

   {Brake beam} or {Brake bar}, the beam that connects the brake
      blocks of opposite wheels.

   {Brake block}.
       (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe.
       (b) A brake shoe.

   {Brake shoe} or {Brake rubber}, the part of a brake against
      which the wheel rubs.

   {Brake wheel}, a wheel on the platform or top of a car by
      which brakes are operated.

   {Continuous brake} . See under {Continuous}.