axle

[ak-suh l]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR axle ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Machinery. the pin, bar, shaft, or the like, on which or by means of which a wheel or pair of wheels rotates.

the spindle at either end of an axletree.

Origin of axle

before 900; Middle English axel, Old English eaxl shoulder, crossbeam (in eaxle-gespann); cognate with Old Frisian ax(e)le, Old Saxon ahsla, Old High German ahsala shoulder (German Achsel), Old Norse ǫxl, Latin āla (< derivative of *akslā)

Related formsax·led, adjectiveun·ax·led, adjective

Can be confusedaxel axle

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for axle

gudgeon, shaft, pin, support, rod, stem, pole, stalk, pivot, spindle, axis, mandrel, arbor

Examples from the Web for axle

Contemporary Examples of axle

When we finally made it into the village, the axle on one of our trucks split in half.
A Man to Believe In: Eulogy for Marine Master Sergeant Aaron Torian
Elliot Ackerman
March 5, 2014
This intricate sequence wrapped us around the axle more than once during design and testing in the years preceding launch.
Curiosity’s Mars Landing Narrated Moment by Moment by Flight Director Keith Comeaux
Keith Comeaux
August 7, 2012
The success of the whole structure was extremely sensitive to the size of the axle.
The Hardest Part of Inventing the Wheel? Not the Round Part.
David Frum
March 15, 2012

Historical Examples of axle

Upon the axle of the winding pulley there is a break pulley, p.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884
Various
And when he turned the corner, there lay the missing piece from the axle by the city wall.
The Chinese Fairy Book
Various
He looked more closely, and the axle of his cart had disappeared.
The Chinese Fairy Book
Various
And then he realized that the pear-tree which the bonze had chopped down must have been his axle.
The Chinese Fairy Book
Various
She released the jack under the axle, and the wheel dropped to the ground.
The Law-Breakers
Ridgwell Cullum

British Dictionary definitions for axle

axle

noun

a bar or shaft on which a wheel, pair of wheels, or other rotating member revolves

Word Origin for axle

C17: from Old Norse öxull; related to German Achse; see axis 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for axle

"pole or pin upon which a wheel revolves," Middle English axel-, from some combination of Old English eax and Old Norse öxull "axis," both from Proto-Germanic *akhsulaz (cf. Old English eaxl, Old Saxon ahsla, Old High German ahsala, German Achsel "shoulder"), from PIE *aks- "axis" (see axis). Found only in compound axle-tree before 14c.