/pin"hweel', -weel'/ , n.
1. a child's toy consisting of a wheel or leaflike curls of paper or plastic loosely attached by a pin to a stick, designed to revolve when blown by or as by the wind.
2. Also called catherine wheel . a kind of firework supported on a pin which, when ignited, revolves rapidly and gives a dazzling display of light.
3. a wheel having pins at right angles to its rim for engaging the teeth of a gear.
v.i.
4. to revolve rapidly like a pinwheel: Images of the past pinwheeled through his mind.
Also, pin wheel .
[ 1695-1705; PIN + WHEEL ]