pinwheel

or pin wheel

[ pin-hweel, -weel ]
/ ˈpɪnˌʰwil, -ˌwil /

noun

a child's toy consisting of a wheel or leaflike curls of paper or plastic loosely attached by a pin to a stick, designed to revolve when blown by or as by the wind.
Also called catherine wheel. a kind of firework supported on a pin which, when ignited, revolves rapidly and gives a dazzling display of light.
a wheel having pins at right angles to its rim for engaging the teeth of a gear.

verb (used without object)

to revolve rapidly like a pinwheel: Images of the past pinwheeled through his mind.

Origin of pinwheel

First recorded in 1695–1705; pin + wheel

Words nearby pinwheel

pintsch gas, pintubi, pinturicchio, pinup, pinwale, pinwheel, pinwheel escapement, pinwheeling, pinwork, pinworm, pinx.

Example sentences from the Web for pinwheel

British Dictionary definitions for pinwheel

pinwheel
/ (ˈpɪnˌwiːl) /

noun

another name for Catherine wheel (def. 1)
a cogwheel whose teeth are formed by small pins projecting either axially or radially from the rim of the wheel
US and Canadian a toy consisting of plastic or paper vanes attached to a stick in such a manner that they revolve like the sails of a windmill Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): windmill, whirligig