freewheel
English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]Etymology tree
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]freewheel (plural freewheels)
- A device in a transmission that disengages the driveshaft from the driven shaft when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft.
- The mode or state of operation thus produced: Synonym of neutral.
Alternative forms
[edit]Translations
[edit]device
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Verb
[edit]freewheel (third-person singular simple present freewheels, present participle freewheeling, simple past and past participle freewheeled)
- (engineering, mechanics, of a gear) To continue spinning after disengagement.
- (bicycling, of a cyclist) To ride a bicycle without pedalling, e.g. downhill.
- 1935, George Orwell, chapter 3, in A Clergyman’s Daughter[1]:
- On her elderly bicycle with the basketwork carrier on the handle-bars, Dorothy free-wheeled down the hill, doing mental arithmetic with three pounds nineteen and fourpence--her entire stock of money until next quarter-day.
- (automotive, of a motorist) To operate a motor vehicle which is coasting without power, e.g. downhill.
- 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 78:
- Silently and gracefully I free-wheeled across the path of three juggernauts, [...] glided across the hard shoulder and came to rest halfway up a grass bank.
- (figuratively, by extension) To operate free from constraints.
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Dutch: freewheelen
See also
[edit]Categories:
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷelh₁-
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *preyH-
- English compound terms
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- en:Engineering
- en:Mechanics
- English terms with quotations
- en:Automotive
- en:Mechanisms
- English adjective-noun compound nouns