pinwheel

or pin wheel

[ pin-hweel, -weel ]

/ ˈpɪnˌʰwil, -ˌwil /

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.

Nearby words

pintsch gas, pintubi, pinturicchio, pinup, pinwale, pinwheel, pinwheel escapement, pinwheeling, pinwork, pinworm, pinx.

Origin of pinwheel

First recorded in 1695–1705; pin + wheel

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

Examples from the Web for pinwheel

When I told Kink he sputtered like a pinwheel, and every evening thereafter we two went up to her house and sat with her.
The Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure|Rex Beach
Simeon spun around, as he said afterwards, "like a young one's pinwheel."
The Depot Master|Joseph C. Lincoln
One side of the street followed along at his elbow—a slant of pinwheel lights.
Gargoyles|Ben Hecht
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

Little by little the movement became faster and faster until they were spinning around like a pinwheel in a brisk breeze.
The Magic Speech Flower|Melvin Hix

British Dictionary definitions for pinwheel

pinwheel

/ (ˈpɪnˌwiːl) /

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

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.