Cath|e|rine wheel

Cath|e|rine wheel «KATH uhr ihn, KATH rihn»,

1. a) a wheel with spikes projecting from its rim. b) Heraldry. the figure of such a wheel.

2. a firework which revolves like a wheel while burning; pinwheel: »

[She] arrived at dinner fizzing like a Catherine wheel (New Yorker). He throws off ideas like a Catherine wheel (Newsweek).

3. a circular window with radiating divisions; rose window.

4. (in embroidery) a wheellike combination of stitches radiating from a central point, serving to fill a round space or hole.

5. = cartwheel, a kind of handspring. (Cf. ↑cartwheel) Also, Catharine wheel.

╂[< Saint Catherine of Alexandria, condemned to torture on the wheel]