Catharine Wheel

(A). A sort of firework. (See below.)

Catharine Wheels

To turn Catharine Wheels. To turn head over heels on the hands. Boys in the streets, etc., often do so to catch a penny or so from trippers and others.

A Catharine-wheel window.

A wheel-window, sometimes called a rose-window, with radiating divisions. St. Catharine was a virgin of royal descent in Alexandria, who publicly confessed the Christian faith at a sacrificial feast appointed by the Emperor Maximinus, for which confession she was put to death by torture by means of a wheel like that of a chaff-cutter.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Catharine-wheel Politicians

Catharine Theot