What does felly mean?
A felly is the outer rim of a spoked wheel — the circular band, traditionally made of several curved segments of wood called felloes, into which the outer ends of the spokes are fitted. Together with the hub and spokes, the fellies form the skeleton of a traditional wooden wheel, and an iron tyre would be shrunk onto them to bind the whole structure tight. The word belongs chiefly to the vocabulary of wheelwrighting, carriages, and rural transport, so today it appears mostly in historical, craft, and antiquarian writing rather than everyday speech. Its plural is fellies, and it is sometimes spelled felloe in technical contexts. For anyone reading about pre-industrial technology or restoring a horse-drawn vehicle, felly is the precise term for the part of the wheel that takes the road's wear and holds the entire assembly together.
nounThe outer rim of a spoked wheel, into which the spokes are fitted; a felloe.
- The outer rim of a spoked wheel, typically made of curved wooden segments joined end to end, into which the outer ends of the spokes are set.
"The wheelwright steamed the oak until it could be bent around the felly of the cartwheel."
"Each spoke was carefully wedged into the iron-shod felly of the wheel."
"The old millwright inspected every felly for splits before the harvest cart left the yard."
Regular plural; used when referring to the multiple segments forming a single wheel's rim or to rims of several wheels.
"All twelve fellies were shaped from seasoned ash."
Before rubber tyres, every wheel's strength hung on its fellies — curved segments of wood joined into the rim that held the whole wagon together.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of felly
Felly descends from Old English felg, the rim of a wheel, which traces back through Proto-Germanic to the same root as German Felge and Dutch velg. It has been part of English since the earliest recorded period, reflecting how essential wheeled vehicles were to Old English life. The variant form felloe arose later through altered pronunciation and is now standard in technical descriptions of wheel construction. Despite its similarity to "fellow," it is unrelated to that word.
Related word forms
How felly is actually used
Now chiefly historical and technical, appearing mainly in discussions of traditional wheelwrighting, carriages, and antique vehicles. The variant spelling "felloe" is common in this technical context. The plural is regular: fellies.
Easily confused with felly
A felly is the outer rim of a wheel, while a fellow is a person, companion, or man — similar spelling but entirely different words.