axle

/ˈæksəl/

/ˈæksəl/

Other forms: axles

An axle is a rod around which a wheel moves or rotates. The front wheels of your car sit on an axle, turning around it as the car moves.

Any kind of vehicle with wheels uses some kind of axle for those wheels to rotate on. Trucks, buses, and cars have axles, and so do lawnmowers and wagons and even bicycles. The original, Middle English word for axle was axle-tree, which came from a combination of the Old Norse word öxull and the Old English eax, both of which mean "axis," or "line around which a body rotates."

Definitions of axle

1. noun

   a shaft on which a wheel rotates
   types:

   dead axle

   an axle that carries a wheel but without power to drive it

   journal

   the part of the axle contained by a bearing

   driving axle, live axle

   the axle of a self-propelled vehicle that provides the driving power

   axletree

   a dead axle on a carriage or wagon that has terminal spindles on which the wheels revolve

   type of:

   shaft

   a long rod or pole (especially the handle of an implement or the body of a weapon like a spear or arrow)