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

Etymology

Origin of pinwheel

First recorded in 1695–1705; pin + wheel

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

“Her initial number, in which she sings of selling the worst pies in London, while pounding dough and making as many purposefully flailing gestures as a pinwheel, is a triumph.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2022

Their semi-cubicle workstations are are arranged in a pinwheel formation in the middle of a large, otherwise empty room, devoid of decoration.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 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

Everyone stared at her—except for Leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminum foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits.

From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan

Ten years after the Cronut, pastry chefs are twisting croissant dough into pinwheels and squiggles, tying it in knots and stacking it into cubes.

From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2023

"The trick to achieving pinwheels that hold their shape and don't fall apart is to wrap the tortilla rolls in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for several hours before slicing."

From Fox News ● Feb. 10, 2022

Turn it into fun and easy pinwheels to affix to walls, doorways, bar carts, and anything else your heart desires.

From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2021

They form in twisted series so that microphotographs, which can only focus on one layer, produce impressions of spinning glass pinwheels.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 18, 2019

He had swirly brown hair that made Josie think of pinwheels, and rosy red cheeks that made Josie think of apples.

From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix