waterwheel
- n a wheel with buckets attached to its rim; raises water from a stream or pond
- n a wheel that rotates by direct action of water; a simple turbine
- In 1618, for example, a London doctor named Robert Fludd invented a waterwheel that needed no river to drive it.
- At Northville 300 workers turn out 1,000,000 valves per month on the edge of an artificial pond with an overshot waterwheel.
- It is an ancient device, similar to a Persian waterwheel, by which teams of yoked bullocks are used to raise and lower the well's leather bucket.