[f. WHEEL sb. + LOCK sb.2]

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  1.  A form of gun-lock in which the powder was fired by the friction of a small wheel (wound up with a spring) against a piece of iron pyrites. Also attrib.

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1670.  Cotton, Espernon, I. IV. 181. The wheel-lock of a Pistol, ready wound up.

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1677.  Plot, Oxfordsh., 71. These … have been much used for Carabines and Pistols, whil’st Wheel-locks were in fashion.

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1821.  Edgeworth, Mem. (ed. 2), I. 279. Guns,… some with old match-locks,… and others with wheel-locks.

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1860.  J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, III. 589. Their [sc. German Reiters’ or pistoliers’] characteristic arm, the wheel-lock pistol.

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1904.  Tylor, Anthropol., i. 17. The match-lock led up to the wheel-lock, and that again to the flint-lock musket.

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  2.  A form of letter-lock (see LETTER sb.1 8) with a series of wheels or disks upon the edges of which the letters were inscribed.

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1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech.

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  3.  (See quot.)

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1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Wheel-lock, a wagon-lock, to retard the revolution of the wheels in descending a hill.

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