wheelman

English

Alternative forms

• wheel-man, wheel man

Etymology

wheel +‎ -man

Noun

wheelman (plural wheelmen)

1. (automotive) A driver of an automobile, especially a getaway vehicle in a criminal enterprise.
   • 2012, Robert K. Tanenbaum, Bad Faith, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     For instance, the wheelman in a robbery; he doesn't intend for anyone to get killed when he pulls up in front of a liquor store so that his armed complice can rob the store.

2. (nautical) The steersman on a ship.
3. (dated, cycling) A cyclist.

   Coordinate term: wheelwoman

   • 1897, American Architect and Architecture, volumes 57-58, page 51:

     Many wheelmen and wheelwomen, riding safeties, tandems and tricycles, stopped there during the evening and we had good opportunity for comparing American and English bicycles […]

   • 1902, Matilda Betham-Edwards, East of Paris, London: Hurst and Blackett, pages 33–34:

     Old fashioned folks, for whom the horseless vehicle came to late, can but envy wheelmen and wheelwomen as they skim through vista after vista, outstripping one's horse and carriage as a greyhound outstrips a decrepit poodle.

Anagrams

• whalemen