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# treadwheel

«treadwheel» in Mova's school dictionary: **A large wheel turned by people or animals walking on…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#m1)

2) A punishment in Victorian prisons where prisoners had to walk on such a wheel for hours. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#m2)

3) (figurative, like «treadmill») Boring, tiring work that never seems to end. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#m3)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#x1)
- The treadwheel turned the millstones to grind corn. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#x2)
- A donkey walked inside the treadwheel to lift water from the well. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#x3)
- Working in that factory felt like being on a treadwheel. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#x4)
- We saw a picture of an old prison treadwheel in our history book. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#x5)
- The treadwheel was a cruel and pointless punishment. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/#x6)

### 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/treadwheel/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.