Catherine wheel
Americannoun
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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
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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
The world, on fire, turned like a monstrous Catherine wheel within his brain.
From A Prisoner in Fairyland by Blackwood, Algernon
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.
