driving wheel

• driving-wheel (dated)

driving wheel (plural driving wheels)

2. (rail transport) On a steam locomotive, a powered wheel driven by the locomotive's pistons or turbine.

   Synonym: driver

   Hypernyms: wheel < component, part

   Comeronym: driving axle

   Coordinate term: drive wheel

   • 1860 January 23, “News of the Day”, in The New York Times‎^[1], volume IX, number 2602, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 September 2025, page 4, column 1:

     Just after leaving Milford the axle of the driving wheel of the locomotive broke, and before the train could be checked the trucks of the tender were thrown from the track; […]

   • 1904 March 6, “Gen. [Benjamin] Butler’s Face in Rock”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 September 2025:

     Though of the same width as smaller engines, the ten giants are longer and higher, with immense driving wheels that make the wheels of most other freight locomotives look like toy hoops.

   • 1914 April, Joseph Husband, “Semaphore”, in The Atlantic Monthly‎^[3], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 September 2025:

     A wild roar of steam and driving wheels, the wail of its hoarse whistle at the crossing, and then, looming black against the night sky, it smashes past, and in the swing of drivers and connecting rods I think of a greyhound, or a racehorse thundering the final stretch.

   • 1951 March, David R. Webb, “British 4-4-2 Tank Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 152:

     While not, perhaps, the handsomest of 4-4-2 tanks, as they had a rather large proportion of their driving wheels exposed, they proved very useful locomotives, doing yeoman work on suburban trains around London and Birmingham, and later on numerous rural routes.

3. Synonym of steering wheel.
   • 1999, Anne Roiphe, chapter 1, in 1185 Park Avenue: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 1:

     My mother would be smoking, ashes falling in her lap, she would be sitting on a cushion so she could see over the driving wheel. […] She would drive slowly so she could look at the houses carefully.

   • 2006 July 9, Nancy Yarbrough, “Teach safe driving to prevent deaths”, in The Birmingham News, Birmingham, Ala., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 5C, column 4:

     Thanks in part to traffic school, I realize that one of the most dangerous activities I will be letting my children engage in is driving a car. As a parent, I will do my best to teach them the incredible responsibility they have when they put their hands on the driving wheel.

   • 2012 April 7, “Motor insurer helps ‘baby vroomers’ stay on the road”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 48,788, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page Y14, column 8:

     So, despite some MPs’ concerns about safety statistics, leading insurers believe that older hands on the driving wheel are likely to be wiser and safer hands.

   • 2016 September 10, Sydney Smith, “Bill would ban drivers’ hand-held phones”, in Times Herald, Port Huron, Mich.: Times Herald Co., →OCLC, page 2A, column 4:

     “You should have both hands on the driving wheel, so you can drive defensively and you’re prepared for anything that may happen,” [Michael] Reaves said.

   • 2020 November 5, Arthur Gies, “Choosing the Right Xbox: Series X or Series S”, in Wirecutter‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 November 2020:

     Every Xbox One accessory you may have purchased over the past seven years (with the notable exception of the Kinect) will work with the Xbox Series X and Series S. Every first- and third-party controller, every fight stick, every driving wheel, every media remote, and every already formatted storage device will be compatible with the new consoles.

4. A wheel that transmits motion to other wheels or machinery.
   • 1752, Sam[uel] Bamfield, quotee, “Answers to the Mathematical Questions in 1751”, in The Gentleman’s Diary, or The Mathematical Repository; […], volume XII, London: […] Company of Stationers, →OCLC, page 26:

     [W]hilſt this driving Wheel revolves once, the upright Wheel, or that which hath 8 Pinions, will revolve 5.625 Times; […]

   • 1888 December 8, Weekly Times Publishing Co., “The Best Bargain Ever Offered in Sewing Machines. […]”, in The Davenport Weekly Times, volume 2, number 29, Davenport, Ia.: Weekly Times Publishing Co., page [3], column 6:

     The driving wheel on this machine is admitted to be the simplest, easiest running and most convenient of any.

   • 1910 July 25, “Curiosities of Invention”, in The Montreal Daily Star, volume XLII, number 175, Montreal, Que., →OCLC, page 14, column 6:

     The dog is made to rotate a central shaft carrying a large gear wheel which meshes with a small bevel gear carried on the sewing machine driving wheel.

   • 1936 July 18, W. H. Sweeting, “Wanted to Buy”, in The Age, number 25,353, Melbourne, Vic., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14, column 7:

     SEWING Machine, treadles, driving wheel and cabinets; quotation required, drop head type.

• “driving wheel, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.