Definition of "wheel-pit" [wheel-pit]

• A pit inclosed by the piers which support a large fly-wheel or driving-wheel, affording the requisite space for the motion of the wheel. (noun)
• A whirlpool. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Luther Lawrence was killed, April 17, 1839, by a fall into a wheel-pit."
• "The race, now empty of water, is stone-lined and deep, and huge wooden beams and parts of the rude shafting remain in the wheel-pit."
• "A concrete gathering dam, with granite coping, extended up stream from the lower end of the wheel-pit at an angle of thirty degrees, conducts the water to the gates, increasing the available head and stilling the water."