pinwheel
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
Noun
pinwheel (plural pinwheels)
- An artificial flower with a stem, usually plastic, for children: the flower spins round in the wind, like a small paper windmill.
- A firework which forms a kind of spinning wheel.
- 1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, paperback edition, Penguin Books, page 125:
- The sun blazing late in the afternoon, this long hilarious day like a pinwheel inexhaustibly throwing off sparks.
- A cogged (toothed) gear.
- A pastry which resembles the artificial flowers above, with some filling or topping in the center.
- Any food product consisting of layers (for example of pastry and sweet filling, or of bread and meat) rolled into a spiral, visually similar to a cinnamon roll.
Derived terms
- pinwheel flower (Tabernaemontana divaricata)
- pinwheel mushroom (Marasmius rotula)
- pinwheel sandwich
- Wartenberg pinwheel
Translations
fake flower for children
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Verb
pinwheel (third-person singular simple present pinwheels, present participle pinwheeling, simple past and past participle pinwheeled)
- (transitive, intransitive) To spin.
- The damaged fighter jet pinwheeled out of control, the g-forces pushing the pilot so hard he couldn't reach the ejection switch.
- 2009, David Wren, The Repossession, page 226:
- Uncertainly, he stepped back, bumping into the short skirt of the seawall. He stumbled and pinwheeled his arms for balance.
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