🤸 A sideways roll 🛞 A wagon wheel 🤸 To roll sideways 🪙 A dollar coin

to cartwheel

1 3.0

To turn the body sideways using the hands and feet to touch the ground like a wheel

verb
/ˈkɑrtˌwiːl/

: hacer la rueda

Ignoring the question, Jim went on, and the words came in a rush: "The plane'll suddenly drop to the right, the wing'll hit the ground, and you'll cartwheel down the runway, end over end, off it, into a field."

Examples

Lots of kids can't cartwheel.

The Month of August (2002)
Well, when an eagle finds it's perfect mate, they cartwheel, right?

Zookeeper (2011)
He'll cartwheel.

The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
The plane cartwheels down.

Fiction book (1993)
Then she cartwheels to a wall tile that she bashes open, revealing a propane tank behind it.

Fiction book (1992)
I cartwheel off, finding too quick the vertical precipice… a jagged drop slick with ice (H321).

Academic text (2016)
She can cartwheel gracefully across the gym floor during her dance routine.
The children laughed as they took turns trying to cartwheel on the grassy lawn.
After practicing all summer, he finally learned to cartwheel down the sidewalk.

Synonyms

to do cartwheel

vsto cartwheel

1 3.5

To turn your body sideways in a full circle touching the ground with hands and feet to show joy

is the same sideways somersault but focuses on the movement without emotional intent

Antonyms

to stand still

75 1.0

Stay upright in one place without moving

Phrasal Verbs

to do cartwheel

1 3.5

To turn your body sideways in a full circle touching the ground with hands and feet to show joy

Surface Forms

cartwheel infinitive

cartwheeled past

cartwheeled past participle

cartwheeling present participle

cartwheels third person singular

Etymology

Cartwheel as a verb comes from the name of the movement that looks like a turning wheel from a cart. So to cartwheel is to turn your body sideways with hands and feet touching the ground, moving like a wheel.