wheelspin

English

Etymology

wheel +‎ spin

Noun

wheelspin (usually uncountable, plural wheelspins)

1. (automotive) The spinning of the wheels of a vehicle on the surface of the ground with greatly reduced friction and little movement of the vehicle, especially when starting.
   • 2009 August 23, Dexter Ford, “Slip-Sliding Suspended”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     A computer detects wheelspin and reduces power.

Translations

the accidental or deliberate spinning of the wheels of a vehicle

• Bulgarian: буксуване n (buksuvane)
• Finnish: sutiminen
• Irish: rothlam (ga) m, rothlam rothaí m

Verb

wheelspin (third-person singular simple present wheelspins, present participle wheelspinning, simple past wheelspun or wheelspan or wheelspinned, past participle wheelspun or wheelspinned)

1. To drive with poor traction, so that the vehicle exhibits a wheelspin.
   • 1992, Martina Cole, Dangerous Lady, Headline, →ISBN, page 186:

     It was not unusual to see an ice cream van wheelspin away, dragging a runner into the service hatch as it went, especially on the police patches: […]

   • 1997, Siri Reynolds, House of Rooms, Edinburgh: Polygon, →ISBN, page 132:

     When, suddenly and inexplicably, the car had started he had wheelspun away from the kerb in his effort to keep it going.

   • 2003, Danny King, The Hitman Diaries, Serpent’s Tail, →ISBN, page 218:

     Once my rifle was empty I would need to run across the road and put a bullet into everyone’s brain but it didn’t look like I’d get the chance because suddenly the Merc wheelspan forward and away.

   • 2004, Razor Smith, A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun: The Autobiography of a Career Criminal, Penguin Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 97:

     As soon as the way was clear, Pete threw his Harley into gear and wheelspan out of the showroom and off up Bedford Hill, leaving exhaust fumes and a wall of sound in his wake.

   • 2007, Richard Milward, Apples, Canongate, →ISBN, page 42:

     In the end the Fiesta just wheelspinned off down Deepdale – it was pretty obvious they wouldn’t bring it on the field; it would’ve fallen apart. As the car drove off there was a sad kind of feeling – it was very very late.

   • 2007, Catherine MacPhail, Worse Than Boys, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 205:

     We screamed as we wheelspinned round corners, we made up stories on the dark roads to frighten ourselves, and turned up Junior’s CD to full blast, singing at the top of our voices.

   • 2008, Catherine Forde, Sugarcoated, Egmont, →ISBN, page 111:

     Far too quickly for me to peer through the windscreen to check out this nutter on the clutch, the jeepy wheelspinned. Never even entered the garage.

2. To throw up (debris) from a wheelspin.
   • 2007, Anthony Loyd, Another Bloody Love Letter, Headline Review, →ISBN, page 24:

     With only small encouragement from me, and using skills learned on a racing track, he gunned his Land-Rover forward, cut up the saloon and wheelspan a few stones its way as we turned down an unsurfaced track.

Anagrams

• pinwheels