wheel of fortune

From Wheel of Fortune, referring to the spinning of the Roman goddess Fortuna’s wheel which determined people’s fortunes.

• IPA^(key): /ˌwiːl‿əv ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːn/, (wine–whine merger) /ˌʍiːl-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌwil‿əv ˈfoɹt͡ʃun/, /-t͡ʃən/, (wine–whine merger) /ˌʍil-/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t͡ʃuːn, -ɔː(ɹ)tʃən
• Hyphenation: wheel of for‧tune

wheel of fortune (plural wheels of fortune)

1. (gambling) A gambling or lottery device consisting of a wheel which is spun horizontally to determine, by its stopping position, whether a gambler will receive one of the prizes marked around its circumference.

wheel of fortune

1. Alternative letter-case form of Wheel of Fortune (“the mythological wheel turned randomly by Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck, to determine people's fortunes which were thus unpredictable”).
   • 1760, Oliver Goldsmith, “Letter VII. From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China.”, in The Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the author; and sold by J. Newbery and W. Bristow, […]; J. Leake and W. Frederick, […]; B. Collins, […]; and A. M. Smart and Co. […], published 1762, →OCLC, page 22:

     The vvheel of fortune turns inceſſantly round, and vvho can ſay vvithin himſelf I ſhall to day be uppermoſt.

   • 1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 2, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, section I, page 27:

     As a medievalist Ignatius believed in the rota Fortunae, or wheel of fortune, a central concept in De Consolatione Philosophiae, the philosophical work which had laid foundation for medieval thought. […] Was his wheel rapidly spinning downward?