pinwheel

or pin wheel

[pin-hweel, -weel]

noun

a child's toy consisting of a wheel or leaflike curls of paper or plastic loosely attached by a pin to a stick, designed to revolve when blown by or as by the wind.
Also called catherine wheel. a kind of firework supported on a pin which, when ignited, revolves rapidly and gives a dazzling display of light.
a wheel having pins at right angles to its rim for engaging the teeth of a gear.

verb (used without object)

to revolve rapidly like a pinwheel: Images of the past pinwheeled through his mind.

Origin of pinwheel

First recorded in 1695–1705; pin + wheel

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for pinwheel

Historical Examples of pinwheel

Simeon spun around, as he said afterwards, "like a young one's pinwheel."
The Depot Master
Joseph C. Lincoln
Then he swung the light in full circles, till it became a pinwheel of flame.
Young Hilda at the Wars
Arthur Gleason
As he stared into the revenuer's insolent face, the earth looked like a pinwheel.
The Red Debt
Everett MacDonald
A pinwheel had exploded, sending a shower of sparks in every direction.
Holiday Stories for Young People
Various
Persis went through the air like a pinwheel, and those who witnessed the affair gave up her and the horse for dead.
What Will People Say?
Rupert Hughes

British Dictionary definitions for pinwheel

pinwheel

noun

another name for Catherine wheel (def. 1)
a cogwheel whose teeth are formed by small pins projecting either axially or radially from the rim of the wheel
US and Canadian a toy consisting of plastic or paper vanes attached to a stick in such a manner that they revolve like the sails of a windmillAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): windmill, whirligig

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 pinwheel

also pin-wheel, 1690s, "a wheel in the striking train of a clock in which pins are fixed to lift the hammer," from pin (n.) + wheel (n.). Fireworks sense is from 1869.