1542. Hall, Edward IV., 33. And so marched toward London where the Essex men, havinge wylde whay-wormes in their heddes joined them with him.
Wheat. See Clean Wheat.
Wheaton. To wheaton it,
verb. phr. (American: West
Point).—To play sick. [Bartlett:
The term is derived from
the name of old Dr. Wheaton,
U.S.A., long stationed at West
Point.]
Wheedle, verb (old: now recognised).—To
coax, cajole,
fawn on, take in (q.v.) [Skeat:
fr. Ger. wedeln. Century: It is
not clear how a German word of
this kind could get into English;
but the German wars of the 17 th
century brought in a number of
words, and this may have been
taken up as a slang term.
Farmer: in B. E., Dict. Cant.
Crew, 1696, to cut a Wheadle
= 'to decoy by Fawning and
Insinuation.'] As subs. = (1)
cajolery, a hoax; (2) = a flatterer,
cajoler; and (3) a sharper
(q.v.); wheedler, wheedlesome,
wheedling, and other
derivatives follow as a matter of
course.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, ii. iii. 335. His business was to pump and wheedle.
1667. Head, Porteus Redivivus, or the Art of Wheedling [Title]. Ibid. (1678), Madam Wheedle [Title].
1668. Etherege, She Would, etc., i. 1. Don't thou think to pass these gross wheadles on me too?. . . I could never have had the face to have wheadl'd the poor knight so.
1673. Wycherley, Gentleman Dancing-Master, iv. 1. So young a wheedle. Ibid. (1675), Country Wife, ii. 1. Wheedle her, jest with her, and be better acquainted one with another.
1692. Lestrange, Fables. A fox stood licking of his lips at the cock, and wheedling him to get him down.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, iii. I have a deed of settlement . . . which I wheedled out of her. Ibid., iii. 4. If that wheadling Villain has wrought upon Foible to detect me, I'm ruined. Ibid., v. 1. I am not the first that he has wheadled with his dissembling Tongue.
1713. Rowe, Jane Shore, i. A laughing, toying, wheedling, whimp'ring she.
1849-61. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xviii. He wheedled Tillotson out of some money.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, iv. In a fawning, wheedling tone.
1876. Alcott, Hospital Sketches, 88. Anything more irresistibly wheedlesome I never saw.
1885. Clement Scott [Ill. Lon. News, 3 Oct., 339. 2]. The change from the carneying, wheedling sneak to the cowardly bully, is extremely clever.
Wheel, subs. (old).—1. A five-shilling
piece; 5s.: see Cartwheel
(Grose). Also (Tufts)
= a dollar.
2. (colloquial).—A bicycle, or tricycle; as verb = to ride a bicycle or tricycle. Hence wheelman (or -woman) = a cyclist: also knight of the wheel; wheeling = cycling: also the wheeling world (generic for 'cycledom').
1874. Century, xix. 496. In the parlors the costumes of the wheelmen seemed not so much out of place. Ibid. (1884), Sep., 643. One young girl . . . was attended by a youth on a bicycle, who wheeled attentively at her side. Ibid., 646. As wheelmen nowadays so greatly abound, the landlords profit by this arrangement.
1890. Pennell, Cant. Pilgrimage. The ugly barracks and pretty cottages by which we wheeled.
To break a fly (or butterfly) on a wheel, verb. phr. (common).—To punish unduly, without regard to the gravity of the crime, or the standing of the
