wheeling

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of wheel.

   The hawks were wheeling slowly above the ridge as the sun set.

   Wheeling the loaded trolley across the yard, the worker stopped to rest.

   Note

   One spelling carries two quite different verbs of motion. With an object it means pushing or carrying on wheels, as in wheeling a trolley or a patient in a wheelchair. Without one it means turning sharply or circling, as hawks do over a ridge. An older use, going out wheeling on a bicycle, now sounds dated. If the verb takes an object, it is the pushing sense.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of moving or carrying things from place to place on wheels.

   The wheeling of heavy crates across the warehouse occupied the whole crew.

   Careful wheeling of the fragile equipment prevented any damage in transit.

   Similarcarting

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The sweeping, circular motion of something that turns around a point or wheels through the air.

   The wheeling of the gulls above the harbor made a dizzying spectacle.

   The stately wheeling of the stars across the night sky marked the passing hours.

   Similarcircling, turning, whirling, swirling

   Note

   A noun that often appears in the plural, where it names a series of turns rather than a single one: the wheelings of birds in the sky. Kipling, in Rewards and Fairies (1910), sets it among dance words such as balancings, turnings aside, sinkings and risings, which shows its graceful, sweeping feel. Keep it apart from the sense of conveying on wheels, which is about moving loads, not circling.

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