Also 4 whelere, wheler. [f. WHEEL sb. and v. + -ER1.]
I. Senses derived from the sb.
† 1. Wheeler dog, ? orig. a turnspit dog; transf. a roasting-jack or similar instrument. Obs. rare.
1379. Will of Carter (Comm. Crt. London). Vnum instrumentum vocatum a whelere dogge.
2. A wheelwright or wheel-maker.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 109. Whelers and Smythes toles.
1549. MSS. Dk. Rutland (Hist. MSS. Comm.), IV. 570. A wheler to make wheles.
1666. Bedloe’s Narr. Popish Plot, 6. A Paper with a Ball of Wild-fire,… was found in the Nave of a Wheel, in a Wheelers-yard.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 19. The Stones that … ever will be the Cause of a greater Charge of Smith’s and Wheeler’s Bills.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. 84. The wheeler’s shop, always picturesque, with its tools, and its work.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 468/1. Wheelers,… the mechanics of a battery engaged in setting up the wheels of the gun-carriages.
1901. Daily Chron., 8 May, 11/2. Wheelwrights.—Wanted 2 good wheelers.
3. A wheel-horse (see WHEEL sb. 18) or other draught-animal in the same position; often opp. to leader (LEADER1 6 b).
1813. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 82. My leader took fright … but luckily I kept my wheeler in.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, xiv. Now, the coach was lying on the tails of the two wheelers; and now it was rearing up in the air.
1885. New Bk. Sports, 171. Few things are more distressing than to see … one wheeler hanging away from the pole, and the other bugging it.
4. One who attends to the wheel in a spinning-machine.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., iii. 47. Each spinner had three boys under him—the wheeler, the pointer, and the stripper.
5. Needlework. One who makes ‘wheels’: see WHEEL sb. 8 (a).
6. = wheel-bird: see WHEEL sb. 18.
1862. Johns, Brit. Birds, 625. Wheel-bird, or Wheeler, the Nightjar.
7. Something, as a vehicle, a boat, etc., furnished with a wheel or wheels: chiefly in compounds, as FOUR-WHEELER, STERNWHEELER, etc.
1886. A. Watt, Electro-Depos., 314. The whole bicycle fraternity, who had been accustomed to plain steel or painted wheelers.
8. ? A nail used in fixing the parts of a wheel.
1873. Iron, 1 Feb., 75/1. Nails … Wrought … Best Derby Countersunk Dub deep Wheelers, 3 [lbs.], 2/9.
II. Senses derived from the verb.
9. One who wheels a vehicle, or conveys something in a wheeled vehicle (esp. a wheelbarrow).
1683. J. Reid, Scots Gard’ner (1907), 55. With wheel-barrows; three barrows for two wheelers and one filler sometimes doth well.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 261/1. Wheeler, is him that carryeth the Clay from the Pit, to the Moulding Board foot.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. iii. 24. The younger boys worked as wheelers or pickers on the bank-tops.
1884. C. T. Davis, Bricks, Tiles, etc. (1889), 131. The wheeler gathers the stones and hard lumps of clay that have been thrown out … and wheels them to some out of the way place.
† 10. One of a series of projecting stones in a battlement: see quot. Obs. rare.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 470/2. A Tower with a plain Battlement; that is, the Battlement is not made with Wheelers and Kneelers, but is streight, and even in the Walk of the Wall. Ibid., 472/1. (Terms of the Fractable on a Gable end) A Wheeler, are wrought stones that ly levell and streight, yet make outward Angles when other stones are ioyned to them.
11. Mil. The man at the outermost end of the rank in wheeling.
1798. Sir W. Young, Instr. Armed Yeom., 13. The man on the other Flank, or Wheeler, will move round square, to Dress by the Pivot Man.
12. One who turns so as to face another way; fig. one who changes his opinion or attitude, a turncoat, a ‘weathercock.’
1836. Tait’s Mag., III. 40. He … is one of the most notorious wheelers in Parliament.
13. One who rides a bicycle or tricycle, a cyclist. colloq.
1897. Barrère & Leland, Dict. Slang.
