driving-wheel

Noun

driving wheel (plural driving wheels)

1. On a steam locomotive, a powered wheel driven by the locomotive's pistons or turbine.
   • Just after leaving Milford the axle of the driving wheel of the locomotive broke, and before the train could be checked the trucks of the tender were thrown from the track; […]1860 January 23, “News of the Day”, in The New York Times, volume IX, number 2602, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Sep 2025, page 4, column 1

   Synonyms:

   driver

2. Synonym of steering wheel.
   • My mother would be smoking, ashes falling in her lap, she would be sitting on a cushion so she could see over the driving wheel. […] She would drive slowly so she could look at the houses carefully.1999, Anne Roiphe, chapter 1, in 1185 Park Avenue: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 1

   Synonyms:

   steering wheel

3. A wheel that transmits motion to other wheels or machinery.
   • [W]hilſt this driving Wheel revolves once, the upright Wheel, or that which hath 8 Pinions, will revolve 5.625 Times; […]1752, Sam[uel] Bamfield, quotee, “Answers to the Mathematical Questions in 1751”, in The Gentleman’s Diary, or The Mathematical Repository; […], volume XII, London: […] Company of Stationers, →OCLC...