Dictionary

wheelman en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-redup. Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷléh₂ Proto-Germanic *hweulō Old English hwēol Middle English whel English wheel Proto-Indo-European *mon- Proto-Germanic *mann- Proto-West Germanic *mann Old English mann Middle English man Middle English -man English -man English wheelman From wheel + -man.

Meanings

1. A driver of an automobile, especially a getaway vehicle in a criminal enterprise.
   • For instance, the wheelman in a robbery; he doesn't intend for anyone to get killed when he pulls up in front of a liquor store so that his armed complice can rob the store. 2012, Robert K. Tanenbaum, Bad Faith, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
2. The steersman on a ship.
3. (dated) A cyclist.
   • Many wheelmen and wheelwomen, riding safeties, tandems and tricycles, stopped there during the evening and we had good opportunity for comparing American and English bicycles […] 1897, American Architect and Architecture, volumes 57-58, page 51:
   • Old fashioned folks, for whom the horseless vehicle came to late, can but envy wheelmen and wheelwomen as they skim through vista after vista, outstripping one's horse and carriage as a greyhound outstrips a decrepit poodle. 1902, Matilda Betham-Edwards, East of Paris, London: Hurst and Blackett, pages 33–34:

Forms

Coordinates

wheelwoman