wheelwright
nounEtymology From Middle English whelwryghte; equivalent to wheel + wright.
1
Historical A person who builds and repairs wheels, especially wooden spoked ones.
- Near-synonym: wheelsmith
- The wheels are the wright's distinguishing mark of his trade. It is the wheels that separate him off from the craft of carpenter: a wheelwright is equal to any job in the carpenter's craft but a carpenter cannot make a wheel [with commensurate quality and speed]. Percy Wilson [a wheelwright interviewed by the author] confessed that making the body of a Scotch cart—or of any vehicle for that matter—was a much simpler job than making the wheels […]1971, George Ewart Evans, Tools of Their Trades: An Oral History of Men at Work c. 1900, Taplinger Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 32:
- Derived terms
- Wheelwright
- Related terms
- artillery wheel, cartwheel, cartwright, wagon wheel, wagonwright, wainwright, wheelmaking, wheelwrighting