Catherine wheel

English

Alternative forms

• Catharine wheel, Catharine-wheel, Catherine-wheel, catherine wheel, catherine-wheel

Etymology

Saint Catherine of Alexandria was said to have been sentenced to execution on such a wheel, which shattered at her touch.

Noun

Catherine wheel (plural Catherine wheels)

1. (historical or heraldry) A breaking wheel, or wheel with spikes on it.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
     , II.i.1:

     Sorcerers are too common; cunning men, wizards, and white witches […] have commonly St. Catherine's wheel printed in the roof of their mouth, or in some other part about them […]

   • 1992, David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 3rd edition, page 88:

     […] her tortures consisted of being broken on a wheel (later called Catherine wheel), but the machine broke down injuring bystanders; Catherine was beheaded.

   • 2008, Peter Carey, His Illegal Self, page 181:

     She only lied to the boy to keep him from hurt, and for her sin her intestines were pulled from her on a Catherine wheel.

2. A firework that rotates when lit.
3. (gymnastics) A cartwheel move.
   • 1897, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 1, in Liza of Lambeth:

     […] she went on, making turns and twists, flourishing her skirts, kicking higher and higher, and finally, among a volley of shouts, fell on her hands and turned head over heels in a magnificent catherine-wheel; then scrambling to her feet again, she tumbled into the arms of a young man standing in the front of the ring.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     We did a Catharine-wheel together down the passage. Somehow we gathered up a chair upon our way, and bounded on with it towards the street.

4. (architecture) A rose window.

Derived terms

• Catherine wheel cookie