Wire

ahd-5
  • noun. undefined
  • noun. Metal that has been drawn out into a strand or rod, used chiefly for structural support, as in concrete, and for conducting electricity, when it is usually insulated with a rubber or plastic cladding.
  • noun. A strand or rod of such material, or a cable made of such strands twisted together.
  • noun. Fencing made of wire, especially barbed wire.
  • noun. The system of strings employed in manipulating puppets in a show.
  • noun. A hidden microphone, as on a person's body or in a building.
  • noun. undefined
  • noun. A telephone or telegraph connection.
  • noun. A telegraph service.
  • noun. A telegram or cablegram.
  • noun. A wire service.
  • noun. A pin in the print head of a computer printer.
  • noun. The screen on which sheets of paper are formed in a papermaking machine.
  • noun. The finish line of a racetrack.
  • noun. A pickpocket.
  • intransitive verb. undefined
  • intransitive verb. To equip with a system of electrical wires.
  • intransitive verb. To attach or connect with electrical wire or cable.
  • intransitive verb. To attach or fasten with wire.
  • intransitive verb. To install electronic eavesdropping equipment in (a room, for example).
  • intransitive verb. undefined
  • intransitive verb. To send by telegraph.
  • intransitive verb. To send a telegram to (someone).
  • intransitive verb. To implement (a capability) through logic circuitry that is permanently connected within a computer or calculator and therefore not subject to change by programming.
  • intransitive verb. To determine genetically; hardwire.
  • intransitive verb. To send a telegram.
  • idiom. (down to the wire) To the very end, as in a race or contest.
  • idiom. (under the wire) At the finish line.
  • idiom. (under the wire) Just in the nick of time; at the last moment.
  • The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  • To bind, fit, or otherwise provide with wire; put wire in, on, around, through, etc.: as, to wire corks in bottling liquors; to wire beads; to wire a fence; to wire a bird-skin, as in taxidermy; to wire a house for electric lighting.
  • To snare by means of a wire: as, to wire a bird.
  • To send through a telegraphic wire; send by telegraph, as a message; telegraph: as, wire a reply.
  • To be wound or bound about like wire; encircle.
  • In surgery, to maintain the ends of (a fractured bone) in close apposition by means of wire passed through holes drilled in the bone.
  • To flow in currents as thin as wire.
  • To communicate by means of a telegraphic wire; telegraph.
  • noun. In paper-making, a general term for the woven brass wire-cloth used in a Fourdrinier or paper-making machine.
  • noun. By derivation from this, an annealed wire of size and weight suitable for weaving into nettings, wire-cloth, and the like.
  • noun. An extremely elongated body of elastic material; specifically, a slender bar of metal, commonly circular in section, from the size which can be bent by the hand with some difficulty down to a fine thread.
  • noun. A twisted thread; a filament.
  • noun. A quantity of wire used for various purposes, especially in electric transmission, as in case of the telephone, the telegraph, electric lighting, etc.; specifically, a telegraph-wire, and hence (colloquially) the telegraph system itself: as, to send orders by wire.
  • noun. A metallic string of a musical instrument; hence, poetically, the instrument itself.
  • noun. The lash; the scourge: alluding to the use of metallic whips.
  • noun. In ornithology, one of the extremely long, slender, wire-like filaments or shafts of the plumage of various birds. See wired, wire-tailed, and cut under Videstrdda.
  • noun. plural Figuratively, that by which any organization or body of persons is controlled and directed: now used chiefly in political slang. See wire-pulling.
  • noun. A pickpocket with long fingers, expert at picking women's pockets.
  • noun. A fiber of cobweb, a fine platinum wire, or a line upon glass, fixed in the focus of a telescope, to aid in comparing the positions of objects.
  • Made of wire; consisting of or fitted with wires: as, a wire sieve; a wire bird-cage.
  • In electricity, a kind of Wheatstone bridge in which two adjacent resistances are formed by a wire which can be divided in any ratio by means of a sliding contact and a graduated scale.
  • noun. A corruption of weir.