freewheel

verbB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: freewheeling, freewheels

To freewheel is to coast along without pedalling. Freewheel down the hill.

The mechanism that allows it is a ratchet in the rear hub, which is what makes the ticking sound. To freewheel is also used of anybody drifting through life without effort.

Definitions of freewheel

1verbfreewheelTo coast along without pedalling.B2
“He could freewheel the last mile into the village.”

freewheel is a movement.

Where it comes from

From free + wheel.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Cycling

Practise this word

freewheel in the wild

A freewheel or overrunning clutch is a device in a transmission that disengages the driveshaft from the driven shaft when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft.
Freewheel
An overdrive is sometimes mistakenly called a freewheel, but is otherwise unrelated.
Freewheel
Unlike road bicycles, the track bike is a fixed-gear bicycle; thus, it has only a single gear ratio and has neither a freewheel nor brakes.
Track bicycle
A fixed-gear bicycle or fixie is a bicycle that has a drivetrain with no freewheel mechanism, meaning the pedals always spin together with the rear wheel.
Fixed-gear bicycle
The freewheel was developed early in the history of bicycle design but the fixed-gear bicycle remained the standard track racing design.
Fixed-gear bicycle

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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