wheedler (hwedler)

[ Anything more irresistibly wheedlesome I never saw. L. M. Alcott , Hospital Sketches, etc., p. 88. wheedling (hwēdʻling), n. [Verbal n. of whec dle, v.] The act or art of coaxing, cajoling, or deluding by flattery. He wrote sever all pieces, viz. "The English Rogue," "The Art of Wheadling," . Aubrey , Lives (Merit on). wheell (hwel), n . [ wheol, qwel, hwel, huezel, hweol, The cartere over-ryden with his carte, Under the whel ful lowe he lay adoun. Chaucer , Knight's Tale (ed. Morris), 1. 1165. Smack went the whip, round went the wheels , Were never folks so glad; The stones did rattle underneath, As if Cheap side were mad. Cowper , John Gilpin. 2. Any instrument, apparatus, machine, or other object shaped like a wheel, or the e ential feature of which is a wheel: as, a mill wheel, a spinning - wheel, or a potters' wheel. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. Jer. xviii. 3. Thus, in lower life, whilst the wheel , the needle, ., imploy her, the plough of some trade perhaps demands the muscles and hardine of him. W. Wollaston, Religion of Nature, viii. 1. Turn, turn, my wheel ! This earthen jar A touch can make, a touch can mar. Long fellow, Keramos. The meal-sacks on the whiten'd floor, The dark round of the dripping wheel . Tennyson, Miller's Daughter. (a) Naut., a circular frame with handles projecting from the periphery, and an axle on which are wound the ropes or chains which connect with the rudder for steering a ship; a steering-wheel. Where a ship is steered by steam, in place of an ordinary wheel a small wheel is used, by turning which steam is admitted to the engines which turn the barrel on which the wheel-rope is wound. (b) An instrument of torture. See to break on the wheel, under break. The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel. Goldsmith, Traveller, 1. 435. (c) A firework of circular which revolves on an to W. chwedlai, chwedlai, talk, talk, go ip, I admire thy Impudence, I cou'd never Have had the Face to have wheadl'd the poor Knight so. Etherege, She Would if She Could, i. 1. And so go to her, begin thy new employment; wheedle her, jest with her, and be better acquainted one with another. Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1. I am not the first that he has wheadled with his di embling Tongue. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1. It is (probably) the best Conduct not to bear away Quartering, till you have wheedled the Enemy into your Wake. W. Mount aine, Seaman's Vade-Mecum (ed. 1761), p. 120. IMG:content-2269.jpg:[blocks in formation] (e) One of the attributes of Fortune, the emblem of mutability. Huanne the lheuedi of hap [lady of fortune] heth hire huezel y-went [turned] to the manne. Ayenbite of Inwyt (E. E. T. S.), p. 24. Now y am vndre Fortunes whele , My frendis forsaken me Euerychoon. Hymns to Virgin , etc. (E. E. T. S.), p. 73. The next turn of the wheel gave the victory to Ed- ward IV. J. Gairdner, Richard III., i. 3. A circular course or motion; a whirling round; a revolution; rotation; also, a wheel- ing, turning, or bending. The leed, withouten faile, Is, lo, the metal of Saturne, That hath a ful large wheel to turne. Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 1450. Satan, bowing low, Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel. Milton , P. L., iii. 741. 4. A motive power; in the plural, machinery; hence, a principle of life or motion. That power who bids the ocean ebb and flow,... Builds life on death, on change duration founds, And gives the eternal wheels to know their rounds. wheel. See skew1 , 8. - Small wheel. See spinning - wheel. -Spiral wheels, in mach . , a form of gearing in which the teeth are formed upon the circumference of cylinders of the required diameter at an angle with their respective axes. By this construction the teeth become in fact small parts of screws or spirals winding round the cylinders (whence the name). Wheels of this kind are often used when the two shafts require to pa each other. When the shafts are in the same plane bevel-wheels are em- ployed. - Split wheel See split gear , under split . - Sun- and-planet wheels. See sunl. - To break a butterfly (fly, etc.) upon a (the) wheel, to subject one to a punish- ment out of all proportion to the gravity of the offense and the importance of the offender; hence, to employ great means or exertions for the attainment of trifling ends. Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel, Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ? IMG:content-2270.png:[blocks in formation] Thou first Mobile, Which mak'st all wheel In circle round. Howell, Letters, I. v. 11. not once wheeling upon her own center. Bentley. 2. To change direction of course, as if moving on a pivot or center. As he to flight his wheeling car addrest, The speedy jav'lin drove from back to breast. Steady! steady! the ma es of men Wheel, and fall in, and wheel again, Softly as circles drawn with pen. To break upon the wheel. See break . - Toothed wheels. See toothed . - To put a spoke in one's wheel. See spokel. To put one's shoulder to the wheel. See shoulder.- To slack over the wheel. See slack1 . - Το steer a trick at the wheel. See steer1 . - Undershot wheel. See undershot . - Variable-speed wheels. See variable.-Waved wheel, in mech . , a friction-wheel hav- ing a waved or convoluted surface, and imparting a recip- 3. To move in a circular or spiral course. rocating motion to an arc or lever pre ing against its side. E. H. Knight. - Wheel and axle, one of the mechanical Pope , Moral E ays, iii. 168. powers, consisting in its primary form of a cylindrical the heart is sick, And all the wheels of Being slow. IMG:content-2271.png:[blocks in formation] axle on which a wheel, concentric with the axle, is firmly fastened. A rope is usually attached to the wheel; the axle is turned by means of a lever; and the rope acts as in the pulley - that is, also upon the principle of the lever. Wheel barometer, a modification of the siphon barometer. See barometer . - Wheel couching. See couch ing1, 5.-Wheel cro bow, a cro bow in which the bow is bent by the revolutions of a wheel acting as a windla . See cut under moulinet . - Wheel-cutting machine. (a) A gear-cutting machine. (b) A device for dividing a circle into any number of equal parts. E. H. Knight. - Wheel- facing machine, a machine with adjustable cutters and rolls for facing the sides of wheels, making the fellies of uniform thickne , and forming a bevel. E. H. Knight. -Wheel-finishing machine, a form of slotting-machine The cutter is carried at the end of a vibrating lever.- for planing off the inner face of locomotive-wheel tires. Wheel of life. See zoetrope . - Wheel pre , in the man- ufacture of locomotives and railway-cars, a powerful screw-pre or hydraulic pre by which wheels are forced stre sufficient to hold them in place firmly without keys, set-screws, or other holding devices. - Wheels within wheels, a complication of circumstances, motives, influ- ences, etc. Compare Ezek. i. 16. king's affairs went backwards; wheels within wheels took place. Roger North , Lord Guilford, II. 65. Wheel tax. See tax . -Wire wheel, a brush-wheel made of wire instead of bristles, used for cleaning and scratch- ing metals preparatory to gilding or silvering. E. Н. Knight . (See also breast - wheel , bull - wheel , catharine - wheel , cog- wheel , crown-wheel, dial-wheel, flange-wheel, measur The youth in glittering squadrons start; Suddenly the flying jennet wheel, And hurl the unexpected dart. The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheel'd in her ellipse; And human things returning on themselves Move onward, leading up the golden year. To wheel the wild scrub cattle at the yard With a running fire of stock whips and a fiery run of hoofs. Contemporary Rev. , LII. 405. IMG:content-2272.png:[blocks in formation] Hail mix'd with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls. Milton , P. L., xii. 183. Through the rough copse wheel thou with hasty stride; I choose to saunter o'er the gra y plain. IMG:content-2273.png:[blocks in formation] You shall clap her into a post-chaise,. wheel her down to Scotland. Colman, Jealous Wife, i. " Wheel me a little farther," said her ladyship. "They will follow." I obeyed her again, and wheeled her away from the house with extreme slowne . 3. To make or perform in a circle; give a circular direction or form to. Now heaven in all her glory shone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand First wheel'd their course. Milton , P. L., vii. 501. In many a whistling circle wheels her flight. Words worth, An Evening Walk. 4. To provide with a wheel or wheels: as, to wheel a cart. Imp . Dict.-5. To cause to move on or as on wheels; rotate; cause to turn: as, to wheel a rank of soldiers. Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round. Cowper , Task, iv. 37. The chariot tree was drown'd in blood, and th' arches by the seat Dis purpled from the horses' hoofs, and from the wheel. bands ' beat. Chapman , Iliad, xi. 466. 61. To turn on a wheel. Fortune on lofte And under eft gan hem to whielen bot he. Chaucer, Troilus, i. 139. Court and Times of Charles I. , II. 87.