wheel n.
1. in context of coinage [abbr. cartwheel n.1 (1)].
(a) (US, also wagon-wheel) a $1 coin.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 18: A dollar, a wheel. | |
| Autobiog. (1930) 293: Wheel signifies a dollar. | |
| Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 10 Oct. 91/2: We have looked in vain for the man who had the pluck and ‘wheels’ (cash) to come amongst us [DA]. | |
| ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 69: wheel, n. A dollar. | |
| Bar-20 v: I paid twenty wheels for that eight years ago, and I don’t want it mussed none. | |
| in ‘Word-List From Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:v 405: wagon-wheel, n. Silver dollar. | |
| Two & Three 3 June [synd. col.] Ten washers for a seat at the fight isn’t so sad. You’re so far away from the ring that you save ten wheels in carfare. | |
| Law O’ The Lariat 155: Paid thirty wheels for it. |
(b) a five shilling coin.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Mirror of Life 27 July 14/2: ‘I'll bet a wheel or touch me, / He’s some broady in his sky’. |
(c) coins in general, money.
| None But the Lonely Heart 173: Cost you a few wheels, though. Might get them for half a dollar? Perhaps more? |
2. (orig. Aus./US) a bicycle; also attrib., thus wheeldom, the world of cycling.
 | Wheelman I 13: ‘I love my wheel,’ he said, ‘as the yachtsman loves his boat’ [DA]. | |
| Mirror of Life 28 Sept. 3/3: Corbett’s knee is stil very stiff [...] from the fall he received some weeks ago while riding a wheel. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Aug. 17/2: The bicycle is to be officially introduced into the Bavarian army. A number of soldiers of the garrison of Munich are at present doing orderly service for the purpose of trying the practicality of the ‘wheel.’. | |
| Mirror of Life 21 Dec. 6/1: [T]he advent of A. A. Zimmerman, the champion cyclist, has aroused much interest in ‘wheeldom’. | |
| Artie (1963) 87: She’s got the dough saved up to buy a wheel. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 6 Oct. 3/2: His companion helped him on his wheel, and both rode off. | |
| in James C. W. Eliot 249: This morning we had to walk instead of riding our wheels [DA]. | |
| Sacramento Bee (CA) 28 Apr. 32/5: She’s got the dough saved up to buy a wheel. | |
| Chicago Daily News 20 Sept. 14/5: At long, long last the frantic automobile speeder has met his master, the ‘jay walker’ on a wheel [DA]. |
3. (also wheels, wheels of steel) the record turntable or turntables as used by hip-hop and rap DJs [the circular shape of the turntable, usu. used in pl. The DJ manipulates two turntables (some use three), simultaneously, selecting the portions of records and mixing them together].
| ‘The New Street Art’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 73: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel [...] captures the spirit and creativity of the city’s summertime block parties. | |
| ‘Dope Beat’ 🎵 And by the way, it’s Scott LaRock on the wheels of steel. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 36: Clothes shops and cassettes mostly, few wheels, few videos. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Wheels of steel. | |
| ‘Clock of Destiny’ 🎵 Old school, wheels of steel. |
4. see big wheel under big adj.
5. see wheelman n. (2)
In phrases
(N.Z.) half-a-crown, 2s 6d (12½p).
| Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 HALF-A-WHEEL— 2s. 6d. | |
| Bedside Book 20: ‘Five shillings,’ said the woman in the telephone exchange [...] I tossed down two half-wheels [DNZE]. |
In compounds
(US) a superfluous person who hangs around a couple, a gooseberry.
| Romelle 98: ‘You and Mrs. Ramond,’ he said, ‘seem so happy and self-sufficient. I’d be a third wheel’. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
(Aus/US) to irritate, to pester someone.
| Holy Smoke 9: He must’ve thought he might as well hop in and do his bit then as wait for the Government to get on his wheel with a requisition order or something. |
(Aus.) close behind, in pursuit; putting pressure on someone to do something.
| Rogues and Ruses 34: Me and Finger was on their wheels, but by the time we hit the ring Smiles’ mount was three to one on [AND]. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 78: Don’t come here if there’s a busy on your wheel! | |
| Bony and the Mouse (1961) 81: I’ll be ready for it. I’m going to be right on Tony’s wheel when it happens. | |
| Under the Iron Rainbow 118: The inspector’s been on my wheel to trace him. |
(orig. US) used as an intensifier, e.g. shit on wheels under shit n.
| letter 5 Jan. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 228: Letting us know what a hell of terror he was on wheels. | |
| Hopalong Cassidy Returns 77: I got to admit he’s hell on wheels with a rifle. | |
| Rumble on the Docks (1955) 185: That Clara is a bitch on wheels. | |
| Deadmeat 325: She looks like a bitch on wheels. | |
| Mad mag. June 27: Martha Stewart [...] the ever popular, but nonetheless hurtful, ‘Bitch on Wheels.’. | |
| Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘My stepmother-in-law’s a bitch on wheels’. |
(US) to get a process underway; get rolling.
| Dead Solid Perfect 212: ‘Let’s go put the wheels on,’ Roosevelt said. I went to the practice area and hit about thirty or forty balls. |
a phr. used to indicate that the speaker has not understood the subject of the conversation in which they had been involved.
| (con. 1914–18) Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Happy as Larry Act IV: We had one of them but the wheel came off it! / You don’t need words that length to tell me straight. | |
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 311: ‘We had one but the wheel came off,’ said Jock. |
(Aus.) events turned out badly .
| Aus.-Amer. Dict. 30: ‘The wheel came off the Billy Cart’ is the equivalent of our American quotation, ‘The shit hit the fan.’ . |
a prison treadmill.
| Reynolds’ Newspaper 2 May 8/1: ‘The wheel of life,’ i.e., the treadmill, was not pleasant. | |
| in Echo 25 Jan. 2/4: The treadmill again, is more politely called the everlasting staircase, or the wheel of life, or the vertical care-grinder. | |
| [perf. Charles Coburn] ‘Come Where the Booze is Cheaper’ 🎵 ‘Well,’ said [the magistrate], ‘if you object to paying, you can work it out on the Wheel of Life’. | |
| Indianapolis Jrnl 28 Feb. 3/3: In the criminal’s poetic fancy a tread mill is [...] ‘a wheel of life’. |
events went wrong, plans did not turn out as expected.
| On the Yard (2002) 39: ‘Sucker, just what the hell are you doing back?’ ‘The wheels came off.’. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 246: ‘What happened? What went wrong?’ [...] ‘The fuckin’ wheels came off.’. | |
| Bug (Aus.) 27 Mar. 🌐 Of course the wheels are going to fall off. Don’t they always. |
1. (Aus.) dead.
| Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Dead: 1. Carked it 2. Kissed the concrete 3. Lights out 4. Wheels up 5. Bit the dust 6. Cashed in her chips 7. Curled up the toes 8. Pulled the pin. |
2. (US) ready for action, fully committed.
| Not My First Rodeo 158: As I went wheels up for South Dakota, I remembered again the words from Matthew [etc]. |
(US) of a situation, to deteriorate.
| Another Day in Paradise 25: It’s you and me till the wheels fall off. | |
| Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 100: What do you do when the wheels come off and everything has gone bad? | |
| Hood Rat 109: Pilgrim cannot believe the wheels have come off his birthday plans so quickly. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | February’s Son 130: ‘Way he’s acting seems like the wheels have come off. Right bloody off’. |