Dictionary

Catherine wheel en · NOUN

Etymology

Saint Catherine of Alexandria was said to have been sentenced to execution on such a wheel, which shattered at her touch.

Meanings

1. (historical) A breaking wheel.
   • 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 […] , II.i.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:
   • 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. (Commonwealth, UK, qualifier:pyrotechnics) A 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:
3. A 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:
   • […] 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. A rose window.

Forms

Deriveds

Catherine wheel cookie

Synonyms

pinwheel

wikipedia: Catherine of Alexandria