axletree
nounEtymology From Middle English axiltre; equivalent to axle + tree. Cognate with Icelandic öxultré.
1
A bar or beam of wood or iron, connecting the opposite wheels of a carriage, on the ends of which the wheels revolve.
2
A spindle or axle of a wheel.
3
A stimulus or driving force.
- Soon after his arrival, that patent axletree of action, the not knowing what to do with himself, domesticated him during some weeks of the shooting season at Sillery House...1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 80: