twist vs wheel

twist

verb
  • To cause to rotate. 

  • To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force. 

  • To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts. 

  • To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating. 

  • In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card. 

  • To turn a knob etc. 

  • To join together by twining one part around another. 

  • To wind into; to insinuate. 

  • To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings). 

  • To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends. 

  • To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction. 

  • To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve. 

  • To coax. 

  • To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips). 

noun
  • A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc. 

  • A distortion to the meaning of a word or passage. 

  • A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc. 

  • A twisting force. 

  • The form given in twisting. 

  • An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc. 

  • A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape. 

  • The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon. 

  • A type of dance characterised by rotating one’s hips. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details. 

  • A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination. 

  • The degree of stress or strain when twisted. 

  • Anything twisted, or the act of twisting. 

  • A small roll of tobacco. 

  • A sprain, especially to the ankle. 

  • A girl, a woman. 

  • A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together. 

  • A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together. 

  • A rotation of the body when diving. 

wheel

verb
  • To put into a rotatory motion; to cause to turn or revolve; to make or perform in a circle. 

  • To roll along on wheels. 

  • To cause to change direction quickly, turn. 

  • To travel around in large circles, particularly in the air. 

  • To transport something or someone using any wheeled mechanism, such as a wheelchair. 

  • To change direction quickly, turn, pivot, whirl, wheel around. 

noun
  • A wheelrim. 

  • A potter's wheel. 

  • A round portion of cheese. 

  • The lowest straight in poker: ace, 2, 3, 4, 5. 

  • A Catherine wheel firework. 

  • A recurring or cyclical course of events. 

  • A turn or revolution; rotation; compass. 

  • The instrument attached to the rudder by which a vessel is steered. 

  • A manoeuvre in marching in which the marchers turn in a curving fashion to right or left so that the order of marchers does not change. 

  • A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel. 

  • The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture. 

  • A circular device capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation or performing labour in machines. 

  • A spinning wheel. 

  • A steering wheel and its implied control of a vehicle. 

How often have the words twist and wheel occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )