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Glite Dictionary
prayer wheel

prayer wheel

1 8.6
A small cylinder with prayers inside that people spin in Tibetan Buddhist prayer
  • noun
  • /ˈprɛər wɪl/
translation icon : rueda de oración
  • We wandered through the complex, listened to the mournful chanting, and spun the prayer wheels, always in a clockwise direction.
  • spin prayer wheels

Examples

  • And that's a Buddhist prayer wheel.

    The Rains Came (1939)

  • As the hot air from the butter lamps rises, it slowly rotates the prayer wheels in a clockwise direction, thereby sending their prayers to the divinity.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Above the butter lamps are large paper prayer wheels.

    Academic text (2000)

  • And they spin prayer wheels along the way to keep themselves on the path of the Buddha's teaching.

    Academic text (2005)

  • People sell their prayer wheels, rugs, and knives.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • At the entrance, there are rows of brilliantly painted cylinders known as prayer wheels.

    Academic text (2000)

  • "Brother," Dom Jacques said to him one day after he saw Antoine building a Tibetan prayer wheel, "the Buddhists are coming here to see Western monks."

    Fiction book (2000)

  • But it is chance meetings—like the one I had with an outcaste spinning prayer wheels and begging for alms—that become unforgettable lessons.

    Academic text (2005)

  • At the entrance, there are rows of brilliantly painted cylinders known as prayer wheels.

  • We wandered through the complex, listened to the mournful chanting, and spun the prayer wheels, always in a clockwise direction.

Surface Forms

prayer wheel singular
prayer wheels plural

Morphology

prayer + wheel

The meaning of 'prayer wheel' is directly compositional from 'prayer' (devotional utterance) and 'wheel' (a rotating object): a wheel associated with prayer or used in devotional practice. This straightforward noun+noun formation is cross-linguistically common and involves no idiomatic shift, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Prayer wheel is a round wheel wrapped with many written prayers that spins on a post when people turn it. One popular idea says that turning the wheel is like 'sending' the prayers out again and again, so it became a simple way to 'pray' and gather blessings without saying the words aloud.