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breastwheel. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
breastwheel, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
breastwheel in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
breastwheel you have here. The definition of the word
breastwheel will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
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English
Etymology
From breast + wheel.
breast wheel, breast-wheel
Noun
breastwheel (plural breastwheels)
- A water wheel where the stream of water strikes neither so high as in the overshot wheel, nor so low as in the undershot, but generally at about half the height of the wheel, being kept in contact with it by the breasting. The water acts on the floatboards partly by impulse, partly by its weight.
- {{quote-book|en|1889| Alfred R. Wallace|s:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro|section[[s:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro/Chapter 2|text=The saw-mill was recently erected by Mr. Leavens, who is a practical millwright. It is of the kind commonly used in the United States, and the manner of applying the water is rather different from which we generally see in England. There is a fall of water of about ten feet, which, instead of being applied to an overshot or breast-wheel, is allowed to rush out of a longitudinal aperture at the bottom, against the narrow floats of a wheel only twenty inches in diameter, which thus revolves with great velocity, and communicates motion by means of a crank and connecting-rod directly to the saw.}}