Catherine wheel

plural Catherine wheels · alternative Catharine wheel · alternative Catharine-wheel · alternative Catherine-wheel · alternative catherine wheel · alternative catherine-wheel

1. historicalgovernmentA breaking wheel.

   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.

   2008, Peter Carey, His Illegal Self, page 181

   2 more examples

   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 […]

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 1, member 1

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

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

2. CommonwealthUKpyrotechnicsA firework that rotates when lit.

   [Karoline] Leavitt threw Roman candles, Catherine wheels and smoke bombs in the air in the hope of distracting reporters. But she was unable to quash the nagging suspicion that Donald Trump has something to hide.

   2025 September 9, David Smith, “The president doth protest too much: Trump’s denial on Epstein is backfiring”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: pinwheel

3. gymnasticsA cartwheel move.

   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.

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

   1 more example

   […] 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.

   1897, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 1, in Liza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published [1921], →OCLC

4. architectureA rose window.