wheeler
nounEtymology From Middle English whelere, equivalent to wheel + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (measurement suffix) (sense 4). Piecewise doublet of cycler.
1
Obsolete A wheelwright, a wheelmaker.
2
Someone who operates a wheel.
3
Archaic A wheelhorse (horse near wheel of carriage).
- How proud felt Pierre: In fancy’s eye, he saw the horse-ghosts a-tandem in the van; “These are but wheelers”—cried young Pierre—“the leaders are the generations.”1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities:
4
In compounds A vehicle having the specified number or type of wheels.
- "Excellent," said Sherlock Holmes. "Send the boy for a four-wheeler, and we shall be off at once."1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Greek Interpreter:
5
UK, Historical A sett in a stoneway.
- These wheelers are now made from the same class of rock as the rest of the pavement, […]1894, Transactions of the Liverpool Engineering Society, page 109:
- Related terms
- eighteen-wheeler, four-wheeler, 4-wheeler, high-wheeler, one-wheeler, paddlewheeler, sidewheeler, single-wheeler, six-wheeler, sternwheeler, ten-wheeler, three-wheeler, two-wheeler, wheeler-dealer, wheeler-dealing