English Dictionary: fifth wheel | by the DICT Development Group |
3 results for fifth wheel | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
| |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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[89]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[94]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[94]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[94]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}. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Fifth \Fifth\, a. [OE. fifte, fifthe, AS. f[c6]fta. See {Five}.] 1. Next in order after the fourth; -- the ordinal of five. 2. Consisting of one of five equal divisions of a thing. {Fifth monarchy men} (Hist.), a fanatical sect in England, of the time of the commonwealth, who maintained that there would be a fifth universal monarchy, during which Christ would reign on earth a thousand years. {Fifth wheel}, a horizontal wheel or segment above the fore axle of a carriage and beneath the body, forming an extended support to prevent careening. |