wheel

Pronunciation

• enPR: wēl, IPA ^(key): /wiːl/
• SAMPA: /wi:l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: wheal
• Homophones: weal, we'll (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

Singular wheel

Plural wheels

A wheel

1. (countable) A wheel is a round thing (circle) on a cart or carriage or train or other machine that moves. A cart has four wheels that touch the road and turn.

   The cart needs a very smooth road because it has little wheels.

Verb

Plain form wheel

Third-person singular wheels

Past tense wheeled

Past participle wheeled

Present participle wheeling

1. (transitive) If you wheel something somewhere, you transport it in or on a vehicle that has wheels.

   The nurses wheeled her into the operating theatre.

2. (intransitive) If something is wheeling, it is travelling in circles.

   The eagle wheeled and dived towards the ground to catch its prey.