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Reel vs Wheel - What's the difference?

reel | wheel |

As nouns the difference between reel and wheel

is that reel is real (reality) while wheel is a circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.

As an adjective reel

is real (true, fact, not fictional).

As a verb wheel is

(intransitive|or|transitive) to roll along as on wheels.

reel

English

(wikipedia reel)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A lively dance of the Highlanders of Scotland; also, the music to the dance; -- often called Scotch reel.
  • A frame with radial arms, or a kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound
  • a log reel , used by seamen
    an angler's reel
    a garden reel
  • A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays and hanks, -- for cotton or linen it is fifty-four inches in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches.
  • (McElrath)
  • A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives.
  • A short compilation of sample film work used as a demonstrative resume in the entertainment industry.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wind on a reel.
  • To spin or revolve repeatedly.
  • To unwind, to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else.
  • He reeled off some tape from the roll and sealed the package.
  • To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
  • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=30 citation , passage=It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.}}
  • * Bible, Psalms cvii. 27
  • They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • He, with heavy fumes oppressed, / Reeled from the palace, and retired to rest.
  • * Macaulay
  • the wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves
  • (reel back) To back off or step away unsteadily and quickly.
  • He reeled back from the punch.
  • To make or cause to reel.
  • To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled .
  • To be in shock.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
  • New Jersey was reeling on Wednesday from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, which has caused catastrophic flooding here in Hoboken and in other New York City suburbs, destroyed entire neighborhoods across the state and wiped out iconic boardwalks in shore towns that had enchanted generations of vacationgoers.
  • (obsolete) To roll.
  • * Spenser
  • And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reel .

    Quotations

    ; to stagger * 1996 , , Virago Press, paperback edition, page 111 *: Sarah reels a little, nevertheless, under the dog's boisterous greeting.

    Derived terms

    * reel in * reel off

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    wheel

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
  • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The departure was not unduly prolonged.
  • # A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle.
  • # (label) The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered.
  • # A spinning wheel.
  • # A potter's wheel.
  • #* Bible, (w) xviii. 3
  • Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels .
  • #* (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)
  • Turn, turn, my wheel ! This earthen jar / A touch can make, a touch can mar.
  • # (heraldiccharge) This device used as a heraldic charge, usually with six spokes.
  • A wheel-like device used as an instrument of torture or punishment.
  • (label) A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.
  • (label) The lowest straight in poker: ace, 2, 3, 4, 5.
  • (label) Wheel rim.
  • A round portion of cheese.
  • A Catherine wheel firework.
  • (label) A rolling or revolving body; anything of a circular form; a disk; an orb.
  • (Milton)
  • A turn or revolution; rotation; compass.
  • * (Robert South) (1634–1716)
  • According to the common vicissitude and wheel of things, the proud and the insolent, after long trampling upon others, come at length to be trampled upon themselves.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • [He] throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel .

    Synonyms

    * (instrument of torture) breaking wheel * (wheel rim) rim

    Derived terms

    * balance wheel * behind the wheel * big wheel * breaking wheel * break on the wheel * buffing wheel * cartwheel * car wheel * Catherine wheel * click wheel * cog wheel, cogwheel * color wheel, colour wheel * daisy wheel * disk wheel * driving wheel * eighteen-wheeler * escape wheel * Ferris wheel * fifth wheel * flywheel * foundling wheel * four-wheel * four-wheel drive * freewheel * freewheeling * front-wheel drive * gear wheel, gearwheel * Geneva wheel * grease the wheels * hell on wheels * idle wheel * kick wheel * lantern wheel * leading wheel * mag wheel * meals on wheels * mill wheel * motorcycle wheel * paddle wheel * pinwheel * planet wheel * potter's wheel * prayer wheel * print wheel * ratchet wheel * reinvent the wheel * roulette wheel * scoop wheel, scoopwheel * skateboard wheel * spinning wheel * spin one's wheels * sprocket wheel * the squeaky wheel gets the grease * steel wheel * steering wheel * stern-wheeler * take the wheel * the wheel * three-wheeler * tide wheel * trailing wheel * training wheels * two-wheeler * wagon wheel * water wheel * wheel and axle * wheelbarrow * wheelbase * wheel breadth * wheelchair * wheel clamp * wheeled * wheelhouse * wheelie * wheelie bin * the wheels fell off * wheel of Fortune * wheel of life * wheel rim * wheels * wheelspin * wheel within a wheel * wheelwright * wheely * worm wheel

    See also

    * (wikipedia "wheel")

    References

    * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (intransitive, or, transitive) To roll along as on wheels.
  • Wheel that trolley over here, would you?
  • To travel around in large circles, particularly in the air.
  • The vulture wheeled above us.
  • * '>citation
  • To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair.
  • To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to make or perform in a circle.
  • * Gray
  • The beetle wheels her droning flight.
  • * Milton
  • Now heaven, in all her glory, shone, and rolled / Her motions, as the great first mover's hand / First wheeled their course.

    Derived terms

    * wheel around * wheel away * word-wheeling