treadwheel
part of speech
noun (a treadwheel, treadwheels; also «treadmill»)
meaning for a pupil
1) A large wheel turned by people or animals walking on steps or boards inside or around it, used in the past to grind corn or pump water. tree →
2) A punishment in Victorian prisons where prisoners had to walk on such a wheel for hours. tree →
3) (figurative, like «treadmill») Boring, tiring work that never seems to end. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons about old prisons, the treadwheel was hard labour for convicts from 1818 into the late 1800s: prisoners climbed endless steps, often doing no useful work. In The Wind in the Willows Toad fears hard punishment in gaol. Today «treadmill» is a running machine in a gym, and «a treadmill» also means dull, endless routine.
examples
- Prisoners in Victorian gaols had to walk on the treadwheel for hours. tree →
- The treadwheel turned the millstones to grind corn. tree →
- A donkey walked inside the treadwheel to lift water from the well. tree →
- Working in that factory felt like being on a treadwheel. tree →
- We saw a picture of an old prison treadwheel in our history book. tree →
- The treadwheel was a cruel and pointless punishment. tree →
note
Countable. Close to «treadmill»; «treadmill» is the usual modern word (and also a gym machine). From «tread» = to step.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «treadwheel» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.