Catherine wheel
Americannoun
-
Also called: pinwheel. a type of firework consisting of a powder-filled spiral tube, mounted with a pin through its centre. When lit it rotates quickly, producing a display of sparks and coloured flame
-
a circular window having ribs radiating from the centre
Etymology
Origin of Catherine wheel
1175–1225; Middle English; named after St. Catherine of Alexandria, from wheel used to torture her
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Set to Carl Orff’s dramatic score, the production includes a giant moving Catherine wheel and a live chorus seated on a floating platform above the stage.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
Like Frances, she sizzles and sparkles like a human Catherine wheel, but beneath the delirium is a whiff of despair.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 16, 2015
We think: is this going to be another misfire; an exploding Catherine wheel scorching the bark off a tree; a toppled rocket screaming horizontally into the laburnums followed by the awful yelping of a dog?
From The Guardian ● Aug. 15, 2014
LiVolsi pointed to what looked like a whipping Catherine wheel, with spikes that spurted powder into paper packets, 50 blurring past in every second.
From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2014
While we were eating, two or three little lizards with tails curiously twirled round and round, like a St. Catherine wheel, made themselves friendly, and ate pieces of bread from our hands without fear.
From Pieces of Eight by Le Gallienne, Richard
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
