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The motion of the center of resistance of the float of a paddle wheel, or the blade of an oar, through the water horozontally, or the difference between a vessel's actual speed and the speed which she would have if the propelling instrument acted upon a solid; also, the velocity, relatively to still water, of the backw…

A kind of brake or shoe for a wagon wheel.

Wearing shoes or slippers down at the heel. The shivering urchin bending as he goes, With slipshod heels. Cowper.

A contrivance for turning a spit by means of a fly or wheel moved by the current of ascending air in a chimney.

American railroads. It was sometimes so bent by the passage of a train as to slip over a wheel and pierce the bottom of a car.

ng down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war; also, the short line supporting the heel of the sprit in a small boat.

To draw in, or to inhale, forcibly through the nose; to sniff. He snuffs the wind, his heels the sand excite. Dryden.

ack, and ends; - - much used as a comfortable piece of furniture. Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round. Cowper. Sofa bed, a sofa so contrived that it may be extended to form a bed; -- called also sofa bedstead.

The plate forming the back of a waterwheel bucket.

A leap in which a person turns his heels over his head and lights upon his feet; a turning end over end. [Written also summersault, sommerset, summerset, etc.] "The vaulter's sombersalts." Donne. Now I'll only Make him break his neck in doing a sommerset. Beau. & Fl.

tree (Owenia venosa); also, the tree itself, which furnished a hard reddish wood used by wheelwrights.

driven through the forecastle deck, with a triangular shackle in the head to receive the heel of the old-fashioned fish davit. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

gang relieving another; as, a spellat the pumps; a spell at the masthead. A spell at the wheel isc called a trick. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

ected by crosspieces; as, a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mold for a casting, etc. Spider ant. (Zoöl.) Same as Solitary ant, under Solitary. -- Spider crab (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species o…

ts; furnished or armed with spikes. Or by the spiky harrow cleared away. Dyer. The spiky wheels through heaps of carnage tore. Pope.

ocity of rotation about some specified axis. go for a spin take a spin, take a trip in a wheeled vehicle, usu. an automobile.

The long, round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a loom.

indles revolving simultaneously. -- Spinning mite (Zoöl.), the red spider. -- Spinning wheel, a machine for spinning yarn or thread, in which a wheel drives a single spindle, and is itself driven by the hand, or by the foot acting on a treadle.

Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral. Spiral gear, or Spiral wheel (Mach.), a gear resembling in general a spur gear, but having its teeth cut at an angle with its axis, or so that they form small portions of screws or spirals. -- Spiral gearing, a kind of gearing sometimes used in light machinery, in which spi…

ard in the front part of vehicle, to prevent splashing by a mud or water from the horse's heels; -- in the United States commonly called dashboard.