firewheel

firewheel

English

Etymology

    From fire + wheel.

    Noun

    firewheel (plural firewheels)

    1. Gaillardia pulchella, a flowering plant of southern US, from Arizona to Florida, and northern Mexico.
      Synonyms: Indian blanket, Indian blanketflower, Indian paintbrush, sundance
    2. A wheel of or on fire.
      • 1974, Rundschau, volume 4:
        Ashes from the firewheels, spread through the fields, guarantee bumper crops for the coming seasons.
      • 2009, Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich at War: 1939-1945:
        Weather conditions worsened and the bombers flew into a huge electrical storm that turned their propellers into giant firewheels, as one pilot reported, and blew them all over the sky.

    Derived terms

    Further reading