waterwheel

or wa·ter wheel

[ waw-ter-hweel, -weel, wot-er- ]

/ ˈwɔ tərˌʰwil, -ˌwil, ˈwɒt ər- /

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noun

a wheel or turbine turned by the weight or momentum of water and used to operate machinery.

a wheel with buckets for raising or drawing water, as a noria.

the paddle wheel of a steamboat.

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Origin of waterwheel

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at water, wheel

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use waterwheel in a sentence

She envisioned a New England farmhouse from 1904 complete with a 14-foot high water wheel cut from hand-felled white oak.
Last-Minute Gift Books|Janice Kaplan|December 20, 2010|DAILY BEAST
The water-wheel was turning and the jar of the stones set every beam and plank in the structure to trembling.
Ruth Fielding At College|Alice B. Emerson
Once the wind came with a sudden sweep up the river and she thought she could hear the creak of Uncle Billy's water-wheel.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine|John Fox, Jr.
There was a serpentine factory here once, but it is deserted; the water-wheel turns no longer.
The Cornwall Coast|Arthur L. Salmon

The deeper parts of the channel of the river are laid dry by means of large caissons or chain-pumps, worked by a water-wheel.
The Book of Curiosities|I. Platts
Then I do put the hairpins in, to make them look like a water-wheel that the chore boy does build in the brook.
The Story of Opal|Opal Whiteley

British Dictionary definitions for waterwheel

water wheel

noun

a simple water-driven turbine consisting of a wheel having vanes set axially across its rim, used to drive machinery

a wheel with buckets attached to its rim for raising water from a stream, pond, etc

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