Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A handspring in which the body turns over sideways with the arms and legs spread like the spokes of a wheel.
  • intransitive verb To execute a cartwheel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A wheel of a cart, or, figuratively, something resembling one, as, by exaggeration, the United States silver dollar (1873–1900).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun the type of wheel used on a cart; it typically has wooden spokes and a metal rim.
  • noun an acrobatic maneuver in which the arms and legs are outstretched like the spokes of a wheel, and the body is turned sideways through one or more revolutions, by first touching the hands and then the feet to the ground, in rapid succession so as to mimic the rolling of a wheel; in the course of this feat, the person performing it is alternately upright and upside-down.
  • noun colloq. a silver dollar; a dollar made of silver.
  • intransitive verb to perform a cartwheel{2}.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The literal wheel of a cart.
  • noun A gymnastic maneuver whereby the gymnast rotates to one side or the other while keeping arms and legs outstretched, spinning for one or more revolutions.
  • noun US A silver dollar of the larger size produced before 1979.
  • verb To perform the gymnastics feat of a cartwheel.
  • verb To flip end over end.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun acrobatic revolutions with the body turned sideways and the arms and legs outstretched like the spokes of a wheel
  • noun a dollar made of silver
  • verb do cartwheels: perform an acrobatic movement using both hands and feet
  • noun a wheel that has wooden spokes and a metal rim

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From cart + wheel.

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Examples

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  • A hat that looks like this.

    November 14, 2007