Word.ws English Dictionary

break on the wheel

break on the wheel verb: to fasten (a criminal etc.) to a wheel and break his limbs or beat him to death.

Verb

break on the wheel (third-person singular simple present breaks on the wheel, present participle breaking on the wheel, simple past broke on the wheel, past participle broken on the wheel)

  1. (transitive) To fasten (a criminal etc.) to a wheel and break his limbs or beat him to death.
    • Despite protesting his innocence under torture, the sexagenarian father was condemned by the Parlement in March 1762 to be broken on the wheel, a fate which he bore with stoical fortitude.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 270

Forms of break on the wheel

third-person singular presentbreaks on the wheel
present participlebreaking on the wheel
pastbroke on the wheel
past participlebroken on the wheel

Questions about break on the wheel

What does break on the wheel mean?
Break on the wheel means to fasten (a criminal etc.) to a wheel and break his limbs or beat him to death.
What part of speech is break on the wheel?
Break on the wheel is a verb.
What is the past tense of break on the wheel?
The past tense of break on the wheel is broke on the wheel.

Words near break on the wheel in the dictionary

  1. break of dawn
  2. break of day
  3. break of gauge
  4. break off
  5. break on
  6. break on the wheel
  7. break one off
  8. break one's arm patting oneself on the back
  9. break one's ass
  10. break one's back
  11. break one's balls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break on the wheel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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