AXLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does axle mean? 

• AXLE (noun)
  The noun AXLE has 1 sense:

1. a shaft on which a wheel rotates

  Familiarity information: AXLE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AXLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A shaft on which a wheel rotates

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("axle" is a kind of...):

shaft (a long rod or pole (especially the handle of an implement or the body of a weapon like a spear or arrow))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "axle"):

dead axle (an axle that carries a wheel but without power to drive it)

journal (the part of the axle contained by a bearing)

driving axle; live axle (the axle of a self-propelled vehicle that provides the driving power)

Holonyms ("axle" is a part of...):

wheeled vehicle (a vehicle that moves on wheels and usually has a container for transporting things or people)

 Context examples 

In the middle of the concave side, there is a groove twelve inches deep, in which the extremities of the axle are lodged, and turned round as there is occasion.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Sometimes, with a snap and a thud, one axle would come to the ground, whilst a wheel reeled off amidst the tussocks of heather, and roars of delight greeted the owners as they looked ruefully at the ruin.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing through its middle, upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly that the weakest hand can turn it.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

When it is arrived at D, let the stone be turned upon its axle, till its attracting end points towards E, and then the island will be carried obliquely towards E; where, if the stone be again turned upon its axle till it stands in the position E F, with its repelling point downwards, the island will rise obliquely towards F, where, by directing the attracting end towards G, the island may be carried to G, and from G to H, by turning the stone, so as to make its repelling extremity to point directly downward.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)