axletree

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a dead axle on a carriage or wagon that has terminal spindles on which the wheels revolve

From Middle English axiltre; equivalent to axle + tree. Cognate with Icelandic öxultré.

There was a puff, a groaning of the heavy axletrees, a trembling of the building, and the train was in motion. — McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, William Holmes McGuffey
Inferior ministers, for Mars, repair His broken axletrees and blunted war, And send him forth again with furbish’d arms, To wake the lazy war with trumpets’ loud alarms. — The Aeneid, Virgil
THE OXEN AND THE AXLETREES A pair of Oxen were drawing a heavily loaded waggon along the highway, and, as they tugged and strained at the yoke, the Axletrees creaked and groaned terribly. — Aesop's Fables; a new translation, Aesop

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