wheel-house

Noun

wheelhouse (plural wheelhouses)

1. A building or other structure containing a (large) wheel, such as the water wheel of a mill.
   • A machine with two pair of moulds only, will make from fifty to seventy thousand bricks per week. But if the regular market be large, it can, by using a steam machine of 10 horse power, work sixteen moulds, (four on each side of the wheel house,) and make two hundred thousand bricks per week.1835 February, “Brick Machine”, in New-York Farmer, and American Gardener’s Magazine, volume III (New Series; volumne VIII overall), number 2, New York, N.Y.: Published by the proprietor, D. K....
   1. The partially enclosed structure above and around a wheel of an automobile, typically partly formed by a portion of a fender panel that has been extended outward beyond the plane of the rest of the panel.
      • This invention relates to an improved device for hanging the body of carriages having a so-called "cut-under" or wheel-house, such as a common rockaway, extension-top phaeton, coupé-rockaway, &c., [...]1878 June 13, Edwin R. Wheeler, Improvement in Vehicle-spring Braces, US Patent 205,594, column 1
   2. An enclosed compartment on the deck of a vessel such as a fishing boat, originally housing its helm or steering wheel, from which it may be navigated; on a larger vessel it is the bridge.
      • Captain Waterman was on the wheel-house at the time of the explosion, attending to the landing of passengers from the small boat. He noticed a movement over the boilers, and immediately jumped or was thrown upon the forward deck. He was somewhat bruised, but not seriously injured.1835, “Explosion of the Steam-boat New-England, at Essex, Connecticut River, October 9th, 1833”, in The Mariners’ Chronicle: Containing Narratives of the Most Remarkable Disasters at Sea, […], New...
   3. The enclosed structure around the paddlewheel of a steamboat.
      • PLATE XXVII.—Details of the Paddle Wheel of the Steamboat "North America." Fig. 1, shows the outside framing of the paddle-box, or as it is frequently termed, the wheel-house; also an elevation of the paddle-wheel, shewing the arrangement of the buckets, arms, centre-plate, &c.1840, P[aul] R[apsey] Hodge, “Part VI. Description of Plates.”, in The Steam Engine, Its Origin and Gradual Improvement, from the Time of Hero to the Present Day; as Adapted to Manufactures...
2. A prehistoric structure from the Iron Age found in Scotland, characteristically including an outer wall within which a circle of stone piers (resembling the spokes of a wheel) form the basis for lintel arches supporting corbelled roofing with a hearth at the hub.
   • Most Celtic houses in Britain were simply constructed. They were generally round as in the remains of the house at Little Woodbury in Wiltshire, the wheelhouse at Jarlshof in Shetland, or the house on an unenclosed platform at Greenknowe in Berwickshire. [...] The roof of the Greenknowe house was...1982, Peter Somerset Fry, Fiona Somerset Fry, “Celts, Caledonians and Romans (first century BC–fifth century AD)”, in The History of Scotland, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge & Kegan Paul, →ISBN...
3. (Canada, US, broadly) A pitch location which is favourable to the hitter.
   • The pitch was right in his wheelhouse, and he hit a grand slam.

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