wheel

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wheel a wheel is the emblem of St Catherine of Alexandria (a wheel here is the instrument on which the bodies of criminals were broken as a method of execution).
wheel of Fortune the wheel which Fortune is fabled to turn, as an emblem of mutability. Also called Fortune's wheel.
wheels within wheels used to indicate that a situation is complicated and affected by secret or indirect influences; perhaps originally after the description of the vision of four creatures in Ezekiel 1:16.

See also break a butterfly on a wheel, the wheel has come full circle, fly on the wheel, oil the wheels, spin one's wheels.

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