pinwheel

American  

[pin-hweel, -weel] / ˈpɪnˌʰwil, -ˌwil /

Or pin wheel

noun

• pinwheels
  plural

1. 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.

2. Also called catherine wheel. a kind of firework supported on a pin which, when ignited, revolves rapidly and gives a dazzling display of light.

3. a wheel having pins at right angles to its rim for engaging the teeth of a gear.

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verb (used without object)

1. to revolve rapidly like a pinwheel.

   Images of the past pinwheeled through his mind.

pinwheel British  

/ ˈpɪnˌwiːl /

noun

1. another name for Catherine wheel

2. a cogwheel whose teeth are formed by small pins projecting either axially or radially from the rim of the wheel

3. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): windmill, whirligig. a toy consisting of plastic or paper vanes attached to a stick in such a manner that they revolve like the sails of a windmill

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pinwheels
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pinwheel

First recorded in 1695–1705; pin + wheel

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Explanation

A pinwheel is a spinning toy that looks like a flower on a stick. Blow on it or run through the garden with one and watch it spin. Some things, like peppermints, have a pinwheel pattern. A pinwheel is a stick with twisted paper or plastic pieces that turn as they catch the wind. The original pinwheel, first called a whirligig, was invented in the nineteenth century by a woman who imagined children running while holding them in the air, which is exactly how pinwheels are usually played with. Before the toy, a pinwheel was a gear in a train's mechanism, and also a spinning firework also called a Catherine wheel.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pinwheel pinwheels

For the first time our data allowed us to analyze the likely axis of a possible future burst from our pinwheel Wolf-Rayets.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 18, 2023

To watch them all go at it at once feels a bit like sitting inside of a pinwheel in a windstorm, bits of multicolored plastic flipping and whirring erratically across one’s field of vision.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2022

To make the pinwheel, Nicholson runs the balls of rainbow-colored dough through the pasta maker to make sheets and cuts the sheets into squares.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 2022

When the 23-story Frost Tower opened in downtown San Antonio in 2019, the eight-sided pinwheel of glass represented a resurgent decade of downtown development.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2021

She threw out her arms and twirled till her multicolored skirt looked like a pinwheel taffy.

From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli

The ground floor features the father’s cooking space, complete with a glowing fireplace and a bevy of pinwheels.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2023

More recently, we've recovered spectacular new data on the pinwheels from observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope, the likes of which Wolf and Rayet could hardly have imagined 150 years ago.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 18, 2023

When Warner Bros. began to show “Elvis” to industry insiders last month, many attendees left with pinwheels in their eyes, likening Butler, 30, to an early-career Brad Pitt.

From New York Times ● May 25, 2022

Here, we're reminding you that store-bought phyllo pastry is absolutely acceptable and delicious, especially as a way to get these squash and feta pinwheels on the table in under an hour.

From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2022

We get three seconds Of pinwheels, whistling banshees, Some cones and pyramids That stink but won’t work, And black pills That vomit snakes Of ash.

From "Neighborhood Odes" by Gary Soto

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