great wheel

English

Noun

great wheel (plural great wheels)

a woman spinning at a great wheel

1. A type of spinning wheel with a large drive wheel, turned by hand rather than a treadle.
   • 1890, George Birkbeck Norman Hill, Footsteps of Dr. Johnson, page 135:

     Over the room in the inn where he and Boswell sat "a girl was spinning wool with a great wheel, and singing an Erse song."

   • 1987, Paula Simmons, Spinning and weaving with wool, published 1977, →ISBN, page 114:

     The great wheel does require better fiber preparation than is necessary with a treadle wheel. This is partly because you use only one hand to control the drawing out of the yarn, and also because you cannot draw against the spindle.