axle-tree
(ˈæks(ə)ltriː)
Forms: 3–4 axeltre, 4–6 axil-, axyl-, 5 axille-, exil-, exul-, exyl-, 6 assyl-tre, exeltree, 6–7 axell-, 7 axol-, axil-, 6–8 axel-, 6– axle-tree.
[ME. axel-tre, a. ON. öxul-tré, f. öxull axle + tré tree, synonymous with the native ax-tree. See axle2.]
(Axle-tree, being in earlier use than the simple axle, formerly included the sense of that word, and of axis. It is now restricted to sense 1, but axle is not kept quite distinct from it in use: see that word.)
1. The fixed bar or beam of wood, etc., on the rounded ends of which the opposite wheels of a carriage revolve. The original and only surviving sense. axle-tree arms: the ends of the axle-tree which project beyond the wheels.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 21268 Quat quele mai be..and quat axeltre [v.r. axil tre, axiltree]. 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. 211 Ij. hopis to the exiltre. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §5 Lyn pinnes of yren in the axiltre endes. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings vii. 30 Foure brasen wheles with brasen axeltrees. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 167 The Beech..is very good Timber for..the Husbandman, for Axol-trees. 1755 Mrs. Delany Diary III. 349 No harm but to the axle-tree of their coach, which broke. 1794 W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 84 The arms of the axletree, which are made round, but rather of a conical form. 1855 Macaulay Fredk. Gt. 47 [They] drove shabby old carriages till the axle-trees gave way. 1862 Griffiths Artill. Man. 112 Axle-tree arm. |
† 2. The spindle or axle of any wheel; the ‘axle’ in the wheel-and-axle. Obs.
| c 1400 Mandeville xvii. 181 A wheel, that turneth be his Axille Tree. 1530 Palsgr. 196/1 Axiltre, aixsevl. 1659 J. Leak Water-wks. 19 It shall make the Wheel F to turn half a turn by the Cord which is fastned to the Axletree of the said Wheel. 1664 Evelyn Sylva ii. vi. (1776) 379 For the cogs of mills, posts to be set in moist ground, and Ever-lasting Axle-trees. |
† b. fig. (Cf. pivot, axis.)
| c 1600 Revel. Golias, Their chaunginge mynde on tickell axeltree, Is rold and tost about. 1646 Unhappy Game Scotch & Eng. 9 You make his will the very Axeltree upon which your argument turnes. 1674 Marvell Reh. Transp. ii. 171 A necessity..which drove the great Iron nail thorough the Axle-tree of Nature. |
† 3. A revolving or driving shaft. Obs.
| 1659 J. Leak Water-wks. 18 A straight Axeltree of wood, a foot square, and 60-foot high. |
† 4. = axis: a. The imaginary or geometrical line which forms the axis of revolution of any body, e.g. the earth, a planet, the heavens. Obs.
| c 1400 Epiph. (Turnb. 1843) 113 The axyltre betwene the polys tweyne. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. ii. 280 A right imaginative line, called of the Astronomers the Axletree of the world, about the which the world continually turneth like a Cart-wheele. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 65 Strong as the Axletree In which the Heauens ride. 1633 P. Fletcher Purp. Isl. iv. viii, Most like the poles in heavens Axletrees. |
† b. poetically (transl. L. axis): The pole of the heaven; the heaven, the sky. Obs.
| 1513 Douglas æneis vi. ix. 3 Hir rosy chariot the fresche Aurora Amydwart of the heuynis assiltre Begouth for till wproll. 1626 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. i. 7 And burne heauens Axeltree. |
† c. The central line, e.g. the axis of vision.
| 1624 Wotton Archit. (1672) 52 The Parts farthest from the Axel-tree, or middle Beam of the Eye. |
Hence ˈaxletreed a., furnished with an axle-tree.
| 1580 Tusser Husb. (1878) 36 Strong exeltred cart. |