fire wheel
- noun
- US
:
rueda de fuego
- Gardeners often plant fire wheels to add a splash of late-summer color to their beds.
Examples
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The fire wheel brightened the prairie with its vibrant yellow and scarlet blooms.
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The fire wheel blooms beautifully in the summer.
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A field of fire wheel in full bloom is a breathtaking sight in the Midwest.
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Look at that stunning fire wheel!
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A field of fire wheel in full bloom is a breathtaking sight in the Midwest.
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Gardeners often plant fire wheels to add a splash of late-summer color to their gardens.
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The fire wheel brightened the prairie with its vibrant yellow blooms and scarlet centers.
Synonyms
A garden flower with long stems and yellow petals with red centers
A plant that lives for one year with bright red and yellow flowers that attract bees and butterflies
A small wildflower from the central United States with yellow petals and a red center
A plant with bright yellow, red or purple flowers often grown in gardens
Surface Forms
Morphology
fire + wheel
The compound is descriptively motivated: 'fire' can cue bright/fiery coloration and 'wheel' can cue a round, wheel-like shape, so a learner could plausibly infer a brightly colored, round object — potentially a flower — from the constituents. However, knowing 'fire' and 'wheel' alone does not reliably yield the specific sense 'an annual plant species with showy yellow heads and colored centers', so the connection is only partly predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Fire wheel may come from the plant's bright, round flower heads that look like a small wheel of fire. The yellow petals and red center give a glowing, wheel-like image, so the name refers to the plant's showy, round flowers.
