| 释义 |
▪ I. wire, n.|waɪə(r)|
Forms: 1–4 wir, 4–5, 7 Sc. wyr, 4–7 wyre, 5–7 wyer, (5 were, whir, 6 wyere, wheire, wiar; Sc. 6 wyir, 7 vyr, weyer), 6–7 wier, wyar, 5– wire (Sc. 8 weyr, 9 weir).
[OE. wír, corresp. to MLG. wîre (LG. wîr), ON. *vírr in víravirki filigree work, related further to OHG. wiara (MHG. wiere) finest gold, ornament of this: referred to the base wi- of L. viēre to plait, weave, etc. (cf. withe n.).]
I. Denoting the substance.
1. Metal wrought into the form of a slender rod or thread, formerly by hammering, now by the operation of wire-drawing.
a. of precious metal, esp. gold, used chiefly in ornamentation.
From the 13th to the 16th century golden hair was freq. poetically likened to gold wire.
a1000Riddles xxvii. 14 Wrætlic weorc smiþa wire bi⁓fongen. c1205gold wir [see gold1 8 a]. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 11 Fetislich hir fyngres were fretted with golde wyre, And þere-on red rubyes. c1400Ywaine & Gaw. 2967 Many maidens thar he sese, Wirkand silk and gold wir. c1420? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 373 Dame Venus..Whoos long here shone as wyre of goold bryght. 1423Jas. I Kingis Q. i, In Aquary, Cinthia the clere, Rynsid hir tressis like the goldin wyre. 1618in Archaeologia XLI. 254 All his silver made up in wyer. 1717Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Mrs. Thistlethwayte 1 Apr., [The] cushions..are generally brocade, or embroidery of gold wire upon satin. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. iv. 73 Silver wire is thirty-three hundred years old, and gold wire six hundred years older.
b. of any metal, esp. iron, brass, or copper, drawn out into a rod or thread.
1348Acc. Exch. K.R. 470/18 m. 6 (P.R.O.) In Wir empt[o] pro fistula conducti mundanda iiij. d. 1387–8[see wire-drawer 1]. 1435Cov. Leet Bk. 182 And yif the cardwire-drawer were ones or twies disseyued withe ontrewe wire he wolde be warre. 1482York Myst. Introd. 40 [Pynners and Wyredrawers] makes pynnes or draweth wyre. 1497Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 100 Wire for prymers. 1508Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 113 Item..for wyir to the pottar of Strivelin to bind the gun muld v s. 1572in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 159, ij lb of drawen wyer—iijs. iiij d. 1600Fairfax Tasso ii. xxvi, They..bound her tender armes in twisted wire. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. i. 14 Iron used for making of Wyer, which of all other sorts is the softest and toughest. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 786 The parts are then to be joined properly together, and kept in that state, by means of wire. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 955 A pin is a small bit of wire, commonly brass, with a point at one end, and a spherical head at the other. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 615/1 The metals suitable for wire, possessing almost equal ductility, are platinum, silver, iron, copper, and gold.
c. with qualification denoting (a) the metal, as brass wire, copper wire, iron wire, magnesium wire, platinum wire, (b) the form or colour, as black wire, small wire, white wire, (c) its use, as binding wire, electric wire, fuse wire, joint wire, pinion wire; also lapland wire (see quot. 1755).
14..in Wr.-Wülcker 582/48 Ferrifilum, wyre of yre. 1435Cov. Leet Bk. 183 Ne Cardwyre ne mystermannes wyre. 1463Act 3 Edw. IV, c. 4. §4 Blanc file de ferre vulgarement nomme whitewyre. 1530Palsgr. 288/2 Wyar of brasse, fil darcal, fil de laton. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. iv. 15 [He] Shakt his long lockes, colourd like copper-wire. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag., Penalties & Forfeitures 2 Iron Wyre, or whited Wyre, are forfeited if any such be Imported. 1755Dict. Arts & Sci. s.v. Wire, Wire of Lapland..called..lapland-wire. It is made of the sinews of the reindeer..spun into a sort of thread..covered with tin. 1837L. Hebert Engin. & Mech. Encycl. II. 906 Rolled or ‘black wire,’ (as it is sometimes called, to distinguish it from the bright, or drawn-wire). 1843Holtzapffel Turning I. 429 The drawn tube called joint-wire,..used by the silversmiths, for hinges and joints. Ibid. 433 In hard-soldering, it is..necessary to bind the works together in their respective positions; this is done with soft iron binding-wire.
†d. as the material of a lash or scourge. Obs.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. v. 65 Thou shalt be whipt with Wyer. 1622Middleton & Rowley Changeling i. ii, Alib. Peace, peace, or the wyer comes. 1648Gage West Ind. xiii. 70 Disciplines of wyar, rods of iron, haire-cloths.
e. used for fencing; esp. barbed (earlier barb) wire, later often simply wire: a fencing wire composed of two or more strands twisted together, with barbs or short spikes fastened a few inches apart in the strands; also, the fencing or defence so constructed; also attrib.
1876Field 16 Dec. 714/2, I was in hopes that a country like the Bicester (where every farmer seems to enjoy the chase) would be free of such an enemy as wire. 1883J. Scott Farm Roads, etc. 88 Barb wire fencing should consist of at least two barbs, used in connection with two wires twisted together. Ibid. 89 With cattle the great advantage of barbed wire is that it keeps them in; with sheep, it keeps their enemies out. 1900Kinnear Modder River xi. 93 The mere automatic discharging of their guns at the hustling crowd of human deer impaled upon Cronje's wicked barbed wire. 1915Daily News 6 Jan. 4 Four German snipers were shot on our wire. 1917H. Gibson Diplom. Diary 168 Tremendous barbed wire entanglements form a broad barrier.
II. Denoting an individual object.
*
2. a. A piece, length, or line of wire used for various purposes (see quots.; some early uses are obsolete).
Beowulf 2413 Se [eorðseie] wæs innan full wrætta and wira. c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 1636 For worldly Ioye halt not but by a wir; That preueth wel it brest alday so ofte; For-þi nede is to werke wiþ it softe. c1385― L.G.W. 1205 Dido, Vp on a courser, stertelynge as the fyr, Men myghte turne hym with a litil wyr, Sit Enyas. c1391― Astrol. ii. §38. 46 In centre of the compas stike an euene pyn or a whir vp-riht. 1426–7Rec. St. Mary at Hill 63 First payd for the sepulcre for diuers naylis & wyres & glu ix d. 1469Rolls of Parlt. VI. 232 A Image of lede..broken in the myddes, and made fast with a Wyre. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 52, I haue distroyed Rycharde Hun... I put a wyre in his nose. 1572in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 159 Greate wyers that went crosse the hall. 1581W. Borough Disc. Var. Cumpas ii. B ij, The Flye of the Cumpas of Variation, is so turned by vertue of the Magneticall wiers, that the North poinct thereof doeth shew the Pole of the Magnes. 1583[see supportasse]. 1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 7/2 Graphium,..a writing wyer, or a steele where⁓with to write. 1616A. Rathborne Surveyor 126 On the head or top of which shorter sight, must be placed a wyer or brasse pin. 1680Moxon Mech. Exerc. x. 179 Through this Button should be fastned an Iron Wyer. 1695J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. III. 244 Round Wires of Gold put into the Ears. 1753Mrs. Delany Let. 17 Feb. in Autobiogr. (1861) III. 206 Mr. Maddox, who does surprising feats of activity on a wire. 1811Bk. Trades iii. (ed. 4) 67 The mould, which the paper-maker has in his hand, is composed of many wires set in a frame close together. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xvi. (1842) 425 The open limb is afterwards to be wiped clean..with a wire and tow. 1840Lardner Geom. xv. 193 One of these cylindrical cards, which, as it revolves, carries away the wool spread upon the points of its wires. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. (1862) iv. §1. 270 [The soap] is cut up with wires into bars. 1880R. Ward Sportsman's Handbk. 62 [In setting up birds] the leg wires should be half as stout again as the body wire. 1897Times 18 Sept. 8/2 The [wireless] messages being transmitted from a vertical wire carried up a pole.
b. spec. One of the fine platinum cross-wires fixed horizontally and vertically at the focus of a telescope: see collimator 1.
1774M. Mackenzie Marine Surv. i. (1819) 52 If, while the vertical wire runs along the pole, the horizontal wire runs exactly along..the cross-piece [on the pole].., the quadrant and telescope are right. 1878Abney Photogr. xxxvi. 294 Securing a sharp image of the sun together with that of the cross-wires or ruled gratings.
c. connecting a bell with the bell-pull or -push.
1837Dickens Pickw. xxxvi, ‘There ain't a bell, is there, ma'am?’.. ‘It's only a handle’, said Mrs. Dowler; ‘the wire's broken.’ 1883R. Broughton Belinda iii. ix, The door-bell may ring itself off its wire.
d. U.S. A wire stretched across and above the track at the start and finish of a racecourse. Freq. in phrases: down to the wire, up to, or all the way to, the finishing-line; freq. transf. and fig.; (from) wire to wire, from start to finish of a race; also transf. and attrib.; under the wire, at the finishing-line; fig., (to fall) within the limits or scope of something.
1887Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) 5 May 1/1 Eva K., Little Munch..were first under the wire. 1901‘H. McHugh’ Down the Line 93 Swift often told himself that he could give Marshall P. Wilder six sure-fires and beat him down to the wire. 1920C. Sandburg Smoke & Steel 138 He flashed his heels to other ponies..and hardly ever came under the wire behind the other runners. 1929M. C. Work Compl. Contract Bridge v. 75 There are some hands which may just ‘get under the wire’ of the above definitions. 1950Keowee Courier (Walhalla, S.C.) 31 Aug. 2/2 Baseball season is coming down to the wire, and the leading teams are about as close as two Scotchmen on bargain day. 1974State (Columbia, S.C.) 15 Feb. 4-b/5 Nicklaus..led from wire to wire in the Hawaiian Open [Golf Tournament]. 1975New Yorker 10 Nov. 137/2 Bertram Firestone's Honest Pleasure wound up his racing for the year with a wire-to-wire victory in the Laurel Futurity last weekend. 1982‘E. Lathen’ Green grow Dollars xviii. 151 We're going to force Vandam's into court as fast as we can. I think we'll just make it under the wire. 1984Miami Herald 6 Apr. 22a/1 Odds remain good that the Democrats' race will go down to the wire.
†e. the straight wire: the honest truth; also used without article as a phrase emphasizing the truth of an assertion. Austral. slang. Obs.
1892‘J. Miller’ Workingman's Paradise 203 When it's all over you'll remember what I say and know it's the straight wire. 1909A. Wright Rogue's Luck 70 ‘Now, no kid, Harry,’ said Ned anxiously. ‘Straight wire, did you beat him?’ 1936M. Franklin All that Swagger xlii. 394 ‘Will you?’ said Humphrey... ‘Straight wire, I will.’
f. to pull one's wire: see pull v. 20 i.
3. a. A line of wire used as a conductor of electric current.
live wire, a wire charged with electricity; fig. (colloq.) an energetic or vigorously active person: see live a. 9.
1747[see electrize v.]. 1796Imison's Sch. Arts (ed. 4) 91 When the shocks are to be given with this apparatus..two slender and pliable wires..are to be fastened [etc.]. 1807Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 380 So two cold limbs, touch'd by Galvani's wire, Move with new life. 1817Byron Mazeppa vi. 11 Conveying, as the electric wire, We know not how, the absorbing fire. 1886A. A. C. Swinton Elem. Princ. Electr. Lighting 26 The conducting wires for electric lighting are almost invariably made of copper... They are usually covered with an insulating coat of india-rubber and tape. 1890live electric wire [see live a. 4].
fig.1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xlviii, Political and social movements touched him only through the wire of his rental.
b. spec. The line of wire connecting the transmitting and receiving instruments of a telegraph or telephone. crossed wires: see cross v. 5 c.
1846Punch 5 Dec. 238/2 If this plan of Electric Telegraphs for the million should be carried out, the Post Office..might be turned into a central terminus for all the wires. 1854telegraphic wires [see telegraphic a. 1 b]. 1860G. B. Prescott Electr. Telegr. Pref. p. vi, The wires..are creeping over the Rocky Mountains, and erelong we shall have momentary advices from the Pacific States.
c. transf. The telegraphic system. by wire (formerly by the wires): by means of a telegraphic message. Hence (colloq.) a telegraphic message, a telegram.
1859Lever Dav. Dunn xlix, He then telegraphed to his man of business,..to ascertain..the latest accounts of Lord Lackington's health, and answer ‘by wire’. 1860Trollope Framley P. xviii, You had better come up yourself; but say the word ‘Yes’, or ‘No’, by the wires. 1876‘E. Pinto’ Ye outside Fools! 76 Gusher, of the Bellowgraphic, may have a wire from his sub-editor. 1883Harper's Mag. July 255/1 The forte of the Enquirer is its voluminous correspondence, both by wire and mail. 1889Conan Doyle Sign of Four viii, We pulled up at the Great Peter Street post-office, and Holmes dispatched his wire.
d. The telephone system; an individual telephone connection. Freq. in phrases over the wire (or † wires), on the wire.
Now somewhat old-fashioned.
1902Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 128/2 A Parisian dentist had discovered a process of ‘seeing by wire’, which.. means that he can while speaking through the telephone see his correspondent at the other end of the line of communication. 1925H. Crane Let. 4 June (1965) 207, I did enjoy that talk with you over the wires to Cleveland! Your voice is so much better than ink and paper. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby viii. 186, I tried [Gatsby's house] four times; finally an exasperated central told me the wire was being kept open for long distance from Detroit. 1929‘E. Queen’ Roman Hat Mystery xiv. 211 I'll get the newspaper boys on the wire and ask them to ballyhoo the opening. 1932[see number n. 4 f]. 1935W. Cather Lucy Gayheart i. vii. 51 Every day his concert agent..called him up as soon as his wire was open. 1947S. Bellow Victim xxiii. 280 He ought to have spoken to Nunez about the broken chain while he was on the wire. 1974Wodehouse Aunts aren't Gentlemen iii. 24 And now for heaven's sake get off the wire, I'm busy.
e. A private warning or message. Chiefly in phr. to give the wire. slang.
1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 307 Wire, to give the, to give a secret warning. 1930E. H. Lavine Third Degree xvi. 210 The real thieves get ‘a wire’, and play poker. 1936J. Curtis Gilt Kid vi. 60 He'd been straight with her and had given her the wire right in the beginning. 1972R. Busby Reasonable Man xviii. 161 He gave me the wire that there was a big one coming off.
** Senses used mainly in pl. or collect. sing.
4. Metallic strings (of a musical instrument).
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 355 Irische men beeþ connyng..in harpe and tymbre þat is i-armed wiþ wire and wiþ strenges of bras. 1599Peele David & Bethsabe B j, When his consecrated fingers strooke The golden wiers of his rauishing harpe. Ibid. E iij, His haire is lyke the wyer of Dauids Harpe. 1628Milton Vac. Exerc. 38 Apollo sings To th' touch of golden wires. a1718Prior Power 656 They breath the Flute, or strike the vocal Wire. 1780Cowper Progr. Err. 126 When he has pray'd and preach'd the sabbath down, With wire and catgut he concludes the day. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. xxxviii, His country's creaking lyre, That whetstone of the teeth—monotony in wire! 1818Shelley Rosal. & Helen 1164 From the twinkling wires among, My languid fingers drew and flung Circles of life-dissolving sound. 1875Encycl. Brit. I. 112/2 In the violin and in the pianoforte, the lower notes are obtained from wires formed of denser material.
5. Metallic bars (of a cage).
1656Beale Heref. Orchards (1657) 8 A constant aviary of sweet singers, which are here retained without the charge or violence of the Italian Wiers. 1748Richardson Clarissa III. lxxv. 348 It [sc. a captive bird] beats and bruises itself against its wires. 1848Dickens Dombey vii, A new cage with gilded wires.
6. Croquet. The iron hoops or arches through which the balls are driven. Now rare.
1868Chambers's Encycl. X. 483/2 The implements used in croquet are mallets, balls, posts (or sticks), and hoops (which are called indifferently hoops, wires, or arches). 1904E. F. Benson Challoners i, Martin..struck wildly in the hopes of an impossible cannon off the wire.
7. Knitting needles. Sc.
a1774Fergusson Hallowfair Poems (1845) 14, I wyt they are as pretty hose As come frae weyr or leem. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 805/1 The method of knitting stockings by wires or needles. 1827Scott Chron. Canongate v, Knitting her stocking systematically, as if she meant every twist of her thread, and inclination of the wires, to bear burden to the cadence of my voice. a1878in D. H. Edwards Mod. Scott. Poets (1880) i. 39 She's handy an' quick wi' her weirs an' her needles.
8. a. The metallic lines by which puppets are worked. Chiefly fig. in the phrase to pull (or move) the wires (see wire-puller).
1607Beaum. & Fl. Woman Hater iii. i, Like dead motions moving upon wyers. a1680Glanvill Sadducismus ii. (1681) 35 [Miracles] were so easy to be done..by Wiers and Juggling. a1704T. Brown Walk Lond. & Westm. Wks. 1720 III. 285 A Guide that..can do no more for them, than the Wire in the Finger of the Poppet-Player. 1813Deb. & Proc. Congr. U.S. 5 Jan. (1853) 12th Congr. 2nd Sess. 562 When those who pulled the wires saw fit, they passed away. 1826Mass. Spy 12 Apr. 2/6 Mr. McDuffie said..that he was perfectly aware..who was the skulking manager who moved the wires. 1834S. Rogers Let. to Ld. Holland 28 Oct. in Pearson's 76th Catal. (1894) 51 Lord Durham appears to be pulling at 3 wires at the same time—not that the 3 papers—the Times, Examiner and Spectator are his puppets, but they speak his opinions. 1862Fraser's Mag. July 28 To charge him, in the technical language of his party, with ‘pulling wires’, and ‘laying pipes’ for the Presidency. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. v. xciv. III. 321 A demagogue of greater talent..may practically pull the wires of a President whom he has put into the chair.
b. to be (all) on wires (fig.), to be in a state of nervous excitement or ‘jumpiness’.
1869Chamb. Jrnl. 2 Oct. 639/1 Here's another for T. P.; a man this time, all on wires.
III. Network or framework of wire.
9. a. Wirework; now usually, wire netting.
1547in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 12 Twoo hattes..the Turffes of wyer couerid with clothe of golde. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 111 Also there is a delicate cage of birds, wrought about with thick wyer. a1700Evelyn Diary 23 Apr. 1646, In the middle of this garden was a cupola made of wyre, supported by slender pillars of brick. 1716Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) V. 260 It is pity the Windows of Fairford are not secured with Wire. 1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §853 The dairy, the pantry, and the store room to have fly wire (wirecloth to exclude flies) inside of the windows. 1854Poultry Chron. II. 303 Birds..in new and commodious pens, with galvanised wire fronts.
†b. A frame of wire (a) to support the hair; (b) to support the ruff, = supporter 3 b, supportasse. Obs.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. 67 Least it [sc. the hair] should fall down it is vnder propped with forks, wyers, and I can not tel what. 1595Gosson Pleas. Quips (Percy Soc.) 5 These flaming heads with staring haire, these wyers turnde like hornes of ram. 1603in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 31 For ane corldit wyr to ver on my haed, x s. Ibid., For ane vyr to ver with ane French rouf v s.; item, for thri vyrs to uer vith Inglich roufs iii s. 1607,1612[see rebato c]. 1619Fletcher Knt. Malta i. i, Unfledge 'em of their tyres, Their wires,..pins, and Periwigs, And they appear like bald cootes, in the nest. 1690D'Urfey Collin's Walk Lond. iii. 115 Like buxom Lass, that trips Curanto With Wires, Comodes, and Topknots flaring. 1690M. Evelyn Fop-Dict., Palisade, a Wire sustaining the Hair next to the Duchess, or first Knot. [1893G. Hill Hist. Engl. Dress I. iii. 197 In addition to the starch, wires were used to stiffen the ruff. The wires were covered with silk or gold and silver thread, and came round the neck under the ruff.]
c. Paper-making. Woven brass wire-cloth.
a1700Evelyn Diary 24 Aug. 1678, On this [frame] they take up the papp, the superfluous water draining thro' the wyre... The mark we find on the sheets is formed in the wyre. 1881Spons' Encycl. Industr. Arts iv. 1497 The ‘wire’ is an endless cloth made of very fine wire... The mesh varies from 60 to 70 and even more threads to the inch.
d. A snare for hares or rabbits.
1749Fielding Tom Jones vi. xii, He himself had passed through that Field, in order to lay Wires for Hares. 1815Sporting Mag. XLV. 109 Hares are caught..in purse-nets or wires. 1819Ibid. (N.S.) IV. 210 Fix here and there a large bush..and close to each bush two ‘wires’.
IV. Transferred and miscellaneous uses.
10. Something resembling wire or a wire; e.g. a long thin plant-stem, as a strawberry runner; † a branch-like appendage of a star-stone; a cylindrical piece of native silver.
1601,1879strawberry wire [see strawberry 9]. 1696Phil. Trans. XIX. 294 Capillaries..creeping on..the Ground, with Wires after the manner of Strawberries. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 36 Cinquefoil..produces its Leaves..on a Stem, or Wire. a1728Woodward Nat. Hist. Fossils (1729) I. ii. 81 Several [Asteriæ], with some of those Branches that are wont to arise from them, call'd, by some, Wires. 1793J. Lodge Introd. Topogr. Hist. Heref. 37 That when the wires or vines [of hops] spring up, they may not be too far separated to run up the poles. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 603 It is only in such as possess a..good carbonic earthy matter, that they [sc. potatoes] are enabled to propagate their subterraneous wires or root-buds. 1859W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1866) 128 There may they be seen knee-deep in the wires or clambering over the broken grey rocks. 1882Rep. Prec. Metals U.S. 200 The quartz shows much free gold and silver. The latter is in the form of nuggets and wires. 1897H. Clifford In Court & Kampong 69 The bristling wires of whisker, the long cruel teeth [of a tiger].
11. pl. Applied to hairs, or rays, as resembling shining wires (cf. 1 a). poet. and rhet. Now rare.
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 79 Apollo..Cut off his lockes, and left them on her head, And said; I plant these wires in Natures scorne. 1590― Never too late 49 (bis) The golden wyers that checkers in the day, Inferiour to the tresses of her haire. [c1600Shakes. Sonn. cxxx, If haires be wiers, black wiers grow on her head.] 1876Hardy Ethelberta xv, The sun was peeping out just previous to departure, and sent gold wires of light across the glades.
†12. city wire: a ‘city wife’ who wears wires (sense 9 b) in her hair or ruff: used opprobriously.
1609B. Jonson Silent Wom. Prol. 23 Some [cates] for lords, knights, squires, Some for your waiting wench, and citie-wires. 1632Marmion Holland's Leaguer ii. iii, All the City wires, And Summer birds in Towne, that once a yeare Come up to moulter.
13. slang. A pickpocket.
So called from the practice of extracting handkerchiefs from pockets with a piece of wire.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. Introd. 25 ‘Wires’, or those who pick ladies' pockets. 1862Cornh. Mag. Nov. 644 The boy has now become a single-handed street wire. 1921Chamb. Jrnl. June 410/1 When the ‘wire’ (that is, the man who actually picks the pocket) has helped himself he passes the ‘swag’ to his confederate.
14. Short for:
a. Wire rope or cable.
1882Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 26 Steel wire is made of six strands, with a hemp heart in the centre. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, Wire (W.), a hauling rope.
b. A wire-haired fox terrier or dachshund.
1892Brit. Fancier 19 Feb. 79/2 Mr. F. H. Field judged the Wires. 1938Times 1 Jan. 1/6 (Advt.), Beautiful Corgis,..Wires, Dachshunds, [etc.]. 1975Country Life 6 Feb. (Advt. Suppl.) 27/1 Puppies for sale..Long Haired Wires.
V. attrib. and Comb.
15. a. Simple attrib.: made of wire or wirework, as wire basket, wire blind, wire bolter, wire cable, wire cage, wire cloth, wire fence, wire fencing, wire gauze, wire grate, wire guard, wire lattice, wire mattress, wire mesh (also attrib.), wire net, wire netting, wire network, wire riddle, wire rigging, wire rope, wire shirt, wire sieve, wire spring, wire staple, wire trap, wire trolley, wire web, wire whip; concerned with wire-drawing, as wire-gauge, wire-manufactory, wire manufacture, wire-manufacturer, wire-mill; supported or running on wire, as wire railway, wire tramway. b. Parasynthetic and instrumental, as wire-caged, wire-framed, wire-guarded, wire-hung, wire-mended, wire-netted, wire-rimmed, wire-safed, wire-sewn adjs.c. Objective, with agent-nouns (applied to persons or to appliances) and vbl. ns., as wire-clipper, wire-cutter, wire-cutting, wire-milker (see milk v. 4 d), wire-monger, wire-nippers, wire-weaver; also wire-like adj.
1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery vii. 196 A *wire basket..is convenient for frying parsley and other herbs. 1961J. Stroud Touch & Go vii. 69 The people..carry the same wire baskets round the same Supermarket. 1964D. Francis Nerve ii. 16 There were a few letters..in the wire basket on the inner side of the door. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds ii. 31 A piece of boned fish..fried in the smoking well of liquid fat along with the chips, only in a separate wire basket.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §560 With *wire blinds, the heat and great part of the light might be excluded.
1801Farmer's Mag. Apr. 216 The flour mill..had received a most valuable addition of a *wire boulter.
1860Ure's Dict. Arts II. 113 The Atlantic telegraph cable..is a single *wire cable.
1772T. Simpson Vermin-Killer 5 Let the wire-maker make a *wire cage. 1858Greener Gunnery Advt. 14 [In the wire cartridge] the shot is packed within a wire cage.
1871G. Macdonald Roadside Poems, A Manchester Poem xiv. 17 The dark bird..which hangs *wire-caged.
1916H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap iii. 109 That fresh bunch of campers..had a pair of *wire clippers in the whip socket.
1798*Wire Cloth [see cloth n. 9 b]. 1833[see 9 a]. 1885Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 224/2 This [mould] consists of a framework of fine wirecloth with a ‘deckle’ or movable frame of wood all round it.
1832W. S. Gilpin Landscape Gard. vi. 209, I have lately seen..a *wire fence, which appears to me likely to reconcile the contending objects of beauty and expense.
1854Poultry Chron. I. 540 Patent *Wire Fencing, strong enough to keep out Sheep, &c., and close enough for Dogs, Rabbits, Poultry, &c.
1971S. Hill Strange Meeting i. 28 The sound of the man sleeping above him in the *wire-framed bunk. 1979B. Malamud Dubin's Lives i. 6 She wore wire-framed blue-tinted glasses.
1833Holland Manuf. Metal II. xiv. 327 Stub's *wire gauges. 1888Lockwood's Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Wire Gauge, a notched plate having a series of gauged slots, numbered according to the sizes of wire and sheet metal manufactured.
1816Sir H. Davy in Phil. Trans. CVI. 23 A lighted lamp or candle screwed into a ring soldered to a cylinder of *wire gauze. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 430 The ore-bed, formed of wire-gauze tubes, which are set in a frame a short distance apart, thus allowing the ore to descend between them.
1819Rees Cycl., *Wire-Grates,..contrivances formed of fine wire-work, and used for keeping various kinds of large insects out of vineries,..and such places.
1841Lytton Nt. & Morn. v. xii, Just looking into the parlour..to convince herself that..the *wire-guard was on the fire.
1907H. Wyndham Flare of Footlights vi, *Wire-guarded gas brackets.
1856H. H. Dixon Post & Paddock ii. 38 That springy *wire-hung action, which..distinguishes the stock of the great ‘Rawcliffe Horse’.
1726Swift Gulliver ii. viii, He..observed my Windows, and *wire Lettices that defended them.
1787Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 857 Branches reddish, and *wire-like at the base. 1952E. Pound Personae 180 The wire-like bands of colour involute mount from my fingers.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 349 The *wire manufactory..situated at L'Aigle,..is one of the most considerable in France.
1818Mathews's Bristol Directory 67 *Wire manufacturer.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wire-mattress, one having a web of wire-cloth or chain stretched in a frame for supporting a bed.
1891Scribner's Mag. Sept. 318/1 A padlock with a *wire-mended chain.
1932J. Dos Passos 1919 271 There were knots of police in blue standing about..outside and inside the *wiremesh gates huskylooking young men in khaki. 1944Living off Land v. 109 Tanks..are best dealt with by screening all openings with a protective wire mesh. 1974T. Hughes in Listener 4 Apr. 438/2 The sheep..in her wire-mesh compound.
1899C. J. C. Hyne Further Adv. Capt. Kettle vi. 131 The *wire-milkers.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 346 Three of these machines..are, in general, employed in a *wire-mill.
1479in H. Stewart Co. Gold & Silver Wyre-drawers (1891) 16 The petition of the Wyre-drawers, and Chape-makers that they may be made into one Company, and called *Wyre-mongers.
1871Man. Field Fortif. §177 Gabions of galvanized iron *wire net.
1910Daily Chron. 11 Mar. 6/4 Then why could not the coverts be *wire-netted from March to October?
1801in Deb. & Proc. Congr. U.S. 21 Dec. (1851) 7th Congr. 2nd Sess. 1292 The books shall be..set up in portable cases..with *wire-netting doors and locks. 1854Poultry Chron. I. 468 Ordinary Wire Netting, from 2½d. per yard, 2 feet wide.
1843Penny Cycl. XXVII. 478/2 *Wire net-work formerly employed for screens.
1914B. M. Bower Flying U Ranch 168 Want me to go back and get the *wire nippers?
1890W. J. Gordon Foundry 12 We see a *wire railway to the left, or rather—for the wires are invisible—the trucks go floating through the air like rectangular balloons.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 281 A barley *wire-riddle answers for beans.
1883Man. Seamanship for Boys 111 In turning a dead-eye, in *wire rigging, what seizings do you use?
1974A. Lurie War between Tates (1977) ix. 185 Slouched down on the sofa..is a skinny adolescent boy with thick *wire-rimmed spectacles.
1841Penny Cycl. XX. 156/2 Iron is the material usually employed for *wire ropes. 1859R. Hunt Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (ed. 2) 273 A flat Wire Rope Pulley.
c1824L. Hunt World of Bks., My Bks. (1899) 20 With books all in Museum order, especially *wire-safed.
1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab., *Wire sewn, books sewn with wire instead of thread.
1869Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 1207 For the warm arms, were wont enfold thy flesh, Let *wire-shirt plough, and whip-cord discipline.
1665–76J. Rea Flora 126 The earth being first sifted through a *wyer seive.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §665 *Wire Springs for stuffing are nothing more than spiral coils of wire. 1884‘Edna Lyall’ We Two v, Tom..says I am made on wire springs like a twelfth-cake butterfly.
1667Phil. Trans. II. 440 A long *Wire-staple.
1626Bacon Sylva §171 Which Strings we call False, being bigger in one Place than in another; And therefore *Wire-strings are neuer False. a1700Evelyn Diary 20 Nov. 1679, The viol d'amore of 5 wyre-strings plaied on with a bow. 1887Sci. Amer. 19 Feb. 121/1 The zither..having 24 wire strings.
1768Pennant Brit. Zool. I. 105 One that was seduced into a *wire-trap, by placing its brood in it.
1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 17 Nov. 13/3 She had separated the meat and cold goods into a bag to stop them contaminating sugar in the *wire trolley.
1818Mathews's Bristol Directory 52 Coulsting John, *Wire-weaver and Worker.
1840Penny Cycl. XVII. 209/1 The *wire-web moves forward with a motion so regulated, as..to determine the thickness of the paper.
a1627H. Shirley Mart. Souldier iii. ii. (1638) E 3, *Wyer-whips shall drive you.
16. a. Special comb.: wire act, an acrobatic act performed on a tightrope; wire bar, a bar of copper cast into a suitable form for drawing into wire; wire bed, (a) a bed fitted with a wire spring base or mattress; (b) in papermaking, a moving bed of wire over which the pulp is passed, its fibres at this stage beginning to form a web; † wire-bell, a metal bar or rod used for producing a bell-like sound when struck; wire birch Canad., a small birch, Betula populifolia, which has light-coloured bark and is found in eastern North America; wire-bird, a Ringed Plover, ægialitis sanctæ-helenæ, found only on the wire-grass plains of St. Helena; wire bridge, (a) a suspension bridge supported by wires; (b) a kind of electric bridge furnished with a wire and a graduated scale; wire brush, (a) Jazz = brush n.2 1 b; (b) a brush with stiff wire bristles used in cleaning, esp. for removing rust; hence wire-brush v. trans., to clean with a wire brush; so wire-brushed ppl. a., -brushing vbl. n.; † wire candle, = wired candle (see wired ppl. a. 1, quot 1413); wire-cartridge (see quot. 1858); wire-cut (brick), a machine-made brick cut by means of a steam power wire-cutter; wire-cutter, (a) nippers or pliers for cutting wire; also, a man employed to cut a wire or wires, e.g. in war operations; (b) an appliance for cutting bricks with wire in brick-making; so wire-cutting (also attrib.); † wire-dancer, one who dances or performs acrobatic feats on a wire rope; so wire-dancing; wire edge, the turned-over strip of metal produced on the edge of a cutting tool by faulty grinding or honing; also fig.; wire-edged a., having a wire edge; also applied to a class of picotees having a line of deeper colour round the edge of the petals; wire entanglement Mil., an abatis of (barbed) wire stretched over the ground in order to impede the advance of an enemy; wire-feed, -feeding, used attrib. in the names of machines with apparatus for maintaining a ‘feed’ or continuous supply of wire; wire-finder, an instrument for testing the insulation of electric wires; wire-frame a., (a) applied to a picture (usu. computer-generated) in which every edge of an object is depicted, regardless of its visibility on the object itself, and nothing else; also ellipt., (b) (of spectacles) having a frame made of wire; wire-glass, sheet glass in which wire netting is embedded; wire ground (see quot.); wire grub = wireworm; wire-guided ppl. a., directed (in quot. 1922, carried out) by means of electric signals transmitted along a wire; spec. applied to a missile connected to a control point by a wire; wire gun, a wire-wound gun; wire-hair, short for ‘wire-haired terrier’; wire-haired a., having a rough coat of a hard and wiry texture, esp. designating a kind of fox-terrier as distinguished from the smooth-haired variety; wire heel, contracted quarters of the heel, a defect incident to the feet of horses and cattle; wire house U.S., a brokerage firm having branch offices connected to its main office by private telephone and telegraph wires; wire instrument, † (a) a musical instrument with wire strings; (b) see quot. 1884; wire iron, rod iron for the manufacture of wire; wire-mark Paper-making, (a) pl., the faint lines made by the impression of the wires of the mould in the substance of laid paper; (b) = water-mark 5; wire micrometer, one with horizontal and vertical wires across the field; wire money Numism. (see quot.); wire nail, a nail circular in section, not tapering but pointed, and having a thin circular swaged head; wire-nailing (see quot.); wire pliers, pliers for shaping wire into curves and loops (see quot.); wire puzzle, a toy consisting of two or more wire patterns joined together in such a way as to puzzle one's ingenuity in disentangling them; wire recorder, an apparatus for magnetically recording sounds, etc., on wire and afterwards reproducing them; so wire recording, a recording so made, or the process of making one; wire-rim a. = wire-frame adj. (b) above; also ellipt.; wire saw, a kind of saw of which the cutting part is made of wire; wire service U.S., a news agency that supplies syndicated news by wire to its subscribers; wire silver, native silver found in wire-shaped pieces; wire-stitcher, an automatic stapling machine which takes continuous wire and forms the staples as an integral part of the stapling operation; so wire-stitching (also attrib.); hence (as back-formations) wire-stitch v. trans., wire-stitched ppl. a.; wire story Journalism, a story distributed by a wire service; wire-strainer Austral. and N.Z. = wire-stretcher below; wire-stretcher chiefly N. Amer., a tool for making taut the wire of a fence or the like; wire-tailed a., having wire-shafted tail-quills; wire-twist, a composition of iron and steel welded together and rolled into rods, used for gun-barrels; wire-walker, an acrobat who performs feats on a wire rope; so wire-walking; wireway, a channel or duct for enclosing lengths of wiring, esp. one made of sheet metal; ducting of this nature; wire wheel, a car wheel having wire spokes (used esp. on sports models); wire wool, matted thin wire, used esp. for scouring kitchen utensils; wire-wound a., wound or encircled with wire.
1906Variety 13 Jan. 7/2 The Roses..have a *wire act with some good tricks. 1912C. Mackenzie Carnival xi. 136 They did not object to interminable wire-acts, and put up with divination feats of the most exhausting dullness. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 24 Jan. 18/5 You always knew a wire act would open the show.
1868Joynson Metals 99 The copper, when at the proper state of refining, is cast into ‘ingots’, ‘tiles’, or ‘*wire bars’.
1882W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) II. 296 *Wire-beds—829 no. 10th st. 1918W. Owen Let. 31 Oct. (1967) 591 Other officers repose on wire beds behind me. 1962F. T. Day Introd. Paper iv. 38 The wire bed is kept perfectly level while it oscillates to bring about the interlacing of fibres in the pulp.
1668[Stedman] Tintinnalogia (1671) 3 Let him learn on some Instrument, or *Wyer-Bells, to know a Third, Fifth, and Eighth, which are the principal Concords.
1917B. R. Morton Native Trees of Canada 68 Betula Populifolia..White birch, grey birch, *wire birch. 1956[see Indian pear s.v. Indian a. 4 b]. 1974J. Dowell Look-Off Bear p. viii, Beyond our grove of pines there were mixed growths of wire-birch, swamp willow, [etc.].
1873J. E. Harting in Ibis July 260 The St.-Helena bird, popularly known in the island as the ‘*Wire-bird’.
1816Portfolio (Philad.) June 521 The *wire bridge near Philadelphia..is supported by six wires each 3–8ths of an inch in diameter. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIII. 334/1 Another wire bridge..was built in 1817, across the Tweed. 1891Cent. Dict. s.v. Wire, Wire bridge, in elect., a kind of Wheatstone bridge in which two adjacent resistances are formed by a wire.
1927Melody Maker Apr. 389/1 In quiet passages, the *wire brush on a Chinese cymbal gives a very pleasing effect. a1935T. E. Lawrence Mint (1955) i. xxii. 76 Our job was to wire-brush and repaint a lot of salvaged sheeting... A good job, it looked. Six of us and six wire brushes. 1957Manvell & Huntley Film Music iii. 98 Wire-brush percussion. 1974A. Ross Bradford Business 76 Even the short heavy bolts had been rubbed up with a wire brush. 1978J. Wainwright Thief of Time 210, I should..check the trays of seed potatoes... Wire-brush the seed-trays.
1955Archit. Rev. CXVII. 68 Construction: reinforced concrete frame with mainly brick walls, but certain panels of *wire-brushed concrete. 1978Country Life 28 Dec. 2212/1 The furniture in wire-brushed carved oak.
1978E. Gundrey Simple Plumbing 22 Rust removal involves *wire-brushing. 1980Yachts & Yachting 29 Feb. 672/2 Lead is perhaps the easiest needing only one coat of undercoat and one of Metallic Primocon between wirebrushing (or rubbing down) and the new antifoul.
1419Churchwardens' Acc. St. Michael's Church, Oxford (MS.), *Wyrecandel ante crucem ad Lux Fulgebit.
1839W. Watt (title) Remarks on shooting, in verse, comprehending..the recent and admirable invention of the patent *wire cartridge. 1858Greener's Gunnery Advt. 14 The advantages to be derived from the use of the Wire Cartridge, in the pursuit of..game... The shot is packed within a wire cage, which is constructed so as to allow them to escape from it gradually while the charge is in motion.
1892Labour Commission Gloss., *Wire-cut Brick. 1910Encycl. Brit. IV. 519/2 In all cases bricks thus made are known as ‘wire-cuts’.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wire-cutter, a nippers for cutting off wire. 1888in W. P. Webb Great Plains (1931) 314 While a man was putting up his fence one day in a hollow a crowd of wire-cutters was cutting it behind him in another hollow. 1905H. G. Wells Kipps i. vi. §4 Pearce, the dog! had a wire-cutter in his pocket-knife. 1922Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 919/1 Detachments of wire-cutters, and pioneers, about 50 strong.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wire-Cutting Plyers. 1895Westm. Gaz. 24 Jan. 5/2 The Tramway Strike at Brooklyn... The militia are now using search⁓lights to detect wire-cutting.
1728Baker Biogr. Dram. (1782) I. 88 Mr. Maddox, the celebrated *wire-dancer. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 362 The application of the pick⁓pocket, the wire-dancer, and the balance-master, to become expert in their several arts.
1785Daily Universal Reg. 1 Jan. 4/1 Must he [sc. an editor]{ddd}have writers of tumbling—*wire dancing—and hurly burly description? 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. v. §22. 175 Wire-dancing..consists rather of various feats of balancing..upon the wire.
[1698Phil. Trans. XX. 418 The Edge being whet away to a Wire, as they term it.] 1807H. H. Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry II. iv. 21 In the course of mixing with good company, the *wire edge of art would wear off, and an ease of demeanor be attained. 1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 496 Lastly, the flat face of the [plane-] iron is laid quite flat on the oilstone, to remove the wire edge. 1847O. A. Brownson Two Brothers Wks. VI. 246 Time had hardly worn off the wire-edge of his grief.
1861F. Campin Pract. Hand-turning ii. 41 The tool..should..be so held that the grindstone is driven from the edge towards the handle..otherwise it will discover a great liability to become *wire-edged. 1898Gardener's Mag. 3 Sept. 571/2 Time was when there was a distinct section of wire-edged yellow-ground picotees.
1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. (ed. 3) 470/2 *Wire Entanglement. 1879Hensman Afghan War (1881) 215 Wire entanglements, made with telegraph wire and tent-pegs.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wire-feed Screw-machine, a machine for making screws from a continuous length of wire.
1884Ibid. Suppl. 950/1 A screw machine... It has an adjustable chuck and *wire-feeding apparatus.
1877Jrnl. Soc. Telegr. Engineers VI. 522 A new *wire-finder.
1963AFIPS Conf. Proc. XXIII. 348 A prototype graphical communications system capable of manipulating straight line, ‘*wire frame’, figures in three-dimensional space is now in operation. 1977E. Leonard Unknown Man No. 89 ii. 13 His tinted wire-frame glasses glistened. 1982Ballard & Brown Computer Vision ix. 292 A set of vertices or edges can define many different solids. (It is possible, however, to determine algorithmically all possible polyhedral boundaries described by a three-dimensional wireframe.) 1982J. E. Scott Introd. Interactive Computer Graphics viii. 135 A wire-frame drawing is less pleasing visually, but it is considerably faster for the computer to produce. 1983New Scientist 24 Mar. 819/1 The more detail in a wire frame, the harder it is to understand. 1983L. Deighton Berlin Game viii. 83 Bret put his wire-frame glasses into their case.
1900Engineering Mag. XIX. 761/1 Mr. Murphy proposes..to have a section of the roof made of *wire-glass.
1865F. B. Palliser Hist. Lace iii. 27 The honeycomb network or ground..is of various kinds; *wire ground, Brussels ground, [etc.]. 1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, Wire ground..is sometimes used in Brussels Lace; it is made of silk, with its net-patterned meshes partly raised and arched, and is worked separately from the design.
a1846Loudon (Worc.) *Wire grub.
1922Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 1022/1 *Wire⁓guided high frequency telegraphy and telephony. 1958C. C. Adams Space Flight 52 The latter two [rockets]..are wire-guided. 1972[see TOW s.v. T 6 a]. 1982Sci. Amer. May 103 (Advt.), The wire enables the Hughes TOW to have one of the highest velocities and longest ranges (2·3 miles) of any wire-guided missile in the world. 1982Daily Tel. 10 May 4/3 Two wire-guided torpedoes of the Tigerfish type.
1895Daily News 1 Feb. 3/1 The Majestic will probably be the first ship to be fitted with the new 12-inch *wire guns.
1884Live Stock Jrnl. 5 Sept. 227/2 Heather, another *wire-hair, came second.
1801Sporting Mag. XVIII. 85 The rough *wire-haired hound. 1818Ibid. (N.S.) I. 157 Scotch terriers, rough, wire-haired, with long backs and short legs. 1881V. Shaw Bk. Dog 299 Some excellent wire-haired Fox-terriers.
1819Rees Cycl., *Wire-Heels.
1904N.Y. Evening Post 18 June (Financial Sect.) 1/7 The so-called ‘*wire house’..is a product of the boom times. 1966Economist 25 June 1436/1 It [sc. the New York Stock Exchange] has been firing salvos..about possibly setting up an auxiliary trading floor somewhere in New Jersey... Several larger nation-wide ‘wire’ houses have already said that they are considering some such plans to relocate. 1982Times 27 July 15/4 United States banks..in the past have left financial futures very much to the brokers and major ‘wire houses’ such as Bache or Hutton.
1654Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 190 John Trap of Trinity, [who played] on the citerne; and Georg Mason..on another *wyer instrument. 1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Wire Instruments..for manipulating wire in surgical practice.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Wire-iron, black rod iron made in South Staffordshire, and used for drawing out into wire.
1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 697 The kind of paper most proper..is..yellow wove, as the *wire-marks which are in the other sort, are an impediment to the point of the pencil. 1840Penny Cycl. XVII. 209/2 Various wire-marks, or water-marks, as they are called.
1813D. Brewster New Philos. Instrum. 5 The *wire micrometer.
1853H. N. Humphreys Coin-coll. Man. II. 492 A small issue of shillings, sixpences, and Maundy money, took place in 1797 and 1798... They are known among collectors as the *wire money, from the very slender numerals on the Maundy pieces.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Wire-nail.
Ibid., *Wire-nailing Machine, a machine for closing shoes with wire.
1888Lockwood's Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., *Wire Pliers, pliers in which a pair of smooth jaws, circular in section and tapered lengthways, are substituted for the ordinary flat and roughened jaws.
1898‘H. S. Merriman’ Roden's Corner vii. 69 It happened to be a *wire-puzzle winter, and Cornish had the best collection of rings on impossible wire mazes.
1942Frontier Sept. 3/1 (caption) The *wire sound recorder developed by Armour Research Foundation differs from previous types in the type of recording head. 1957Encycl. Brit. XI. 29/2 Three types of recording systems are in common use: (1) mechanical, as in the disk phonograph; (2) optical, as in the sound film; and (3) magnetic, as in the tape or wire recorder. 1978‘D. Kyle’ Black Camelot ix. 130 ‘I think we'd better record this as we go along.’.. The wire recorder had been produced and checked.
1933Amer. Speech VIII. ii. 77/1 Similar information should be given for film, strip, and *wire recordings. 1943Electronics Oct. 236 (caption) A wire recording of the Army Hour is taken off the air by..engineers. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIV. 518/2 Except for minor details, the techniques and systems used for magnetic wire recording are similar to those for magnetic tape. 1982Sunday Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 21 Nov. 8/2, I just read the words, they were recorded straight on to disc, then transferred on to wire recording tape and that was the end of it.
1977Sat. Rev. 23 July 10/2 Slender, with a trim beard and *wire-rim glasses. 1982J. Valin Day of Wrath (1983) xvii. 131 He's got long hair, wears wire rims, muttonchops.
1688Holme Armoury 501 *Wyer Saw. 1901Nature 28 Nov. 84/2 The helicoidal wire saw has been employed for quarrying marble in Belgium and in Italy for some years.
1950Mag. of Fantasy & S.F. Fall 7, I monitored a couple of newscasts; the second one carried a story by another *wire service on the domes. 1962E. Lacy Freeloaders viii. 181, I didn't think the Herald Tribune used wire services for Europe. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 6 Nov. 24/1 A morning newspaper in the East, using a wire service's totals, had Rockefeller ahead. 1985Times 11 May 21/1 Reuters is keeping a close watch on its troubled American wire service rival, United Press International.
1882Rep. Prec. Metals U.S. 177 Well-defined veins, carrying ruby silver, black sulphuret,..and *wire silver.
1902Census Bull. (U.S.) No. 216. 65 A..combination folding and wire-stitching machine, which by a continuous and automatic operation takes the sheets from the feeders, and folds, gathers, collates, covers and *wire⁓stitches copies of magazines and pamphlets. 1921T. J. Wise Bibliogr. Writings Joseph Conrad (rev. ed.) i. 27 There are no signatures, the pamphlet being composed of a single halfsheet..issued *wire-stitched.
1887Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) 20 Feb. 3/2 Printing-Office... Card Cutter, *Wire Stitcher [etc.]. 1967Wire stitcher [see short run n. 4].
1881Even. News 26 July 4 (Advt.), Over one hundred machines in motion [in a printing and paper-making exhibition]... *Wire stitching, paging, gumming, etc. 1957Encycl. Brit. III. 859/2 The automatic assembling, wire-stitching and covering machine units complete the operation of pamphlet binding.
1943*Wire story [see hot-shot 1 b]. 1979J. Crosby Party of Year (1980) iii. 25 The foreign desk was behind a glass screen... Feinberg was editing a wire story.
1882Armstrong & Campbell Austral. Sheep Husbandry xviii. 204 Novel *Wire Strainer... This instrument..should be made of light iron... Three short spikes, or legs, should be fixed behind, so as to give the instrument a grip of the post as soon as the wire is tightened. 1959A. Upfield Bony & Black Virgin xxiii. 215 The big man studied the method of joining the cut wires... ‘Chain wire-strainer was used.’ 1975N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 57/1 The installation of permanent wire strainers on each strand of a new fence..would overcome this difficulty.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech. III. 2797/2 *Wire-stretcher, a tool for straining lightly telegraph or fence wires. 1954W. Faulkner Fable 187 Cowboy..exterminated from the earth by a tide of men with wire-stretchers and pockets full of staples. 1958J. G. MacGregor North-West of 16 ix. 132 Then it [sc. barbed wire] had to be tightened with our wire-stretchers (a simple block-and-tackle arrangement) until when you plucked it, it sang like a fiddle string. 1981Farmstead Mag. Winter 43/4, I assemble my supplies for next year's battle: my fence staples, spare wire, my fencing pliers and wire stretcher.
1823Latham Gen. Hist. Birds VII. 309 *Wire-tailed Swallow... Inhabits India.
1835Greener Gun ii. 14 Damascus being a variety or mixture, made from the composition named *wire-twist iron. Ibid., The making of wire-twist barrels.
1762Goldsm. Cit. W. lxxxv, Stage-players, fire-eaters, singing women, dancing dogs, wild beasts, and *wire-walkers. 1895Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Feb. 4/2 Miss Virginia Aragon is the most finished wire-walker that we can remember.
1898Pearson's Mag. Sept. 332 *Wire-walking..must always retain a greater amount of fascination. 1920Variety 31 Dec. 124 She learned acrobatics..wire walking and aerial work.
1932A. L. Abbott National Electr. Code Handbk. viii. 97 (caption) A length of *wireway with hinged cover. Ibid. 99 Wireways may extend transversely through dry walls. 1953H. A. Chinn Television Broadcasting xv. 606 In order to provide protection for audio, video, communications, control, and a-c cables..it is customary to instal such cables in conduit, raceways, pipe shafts,..and similar wireways. 1964R. F. Ficchi Electrical Interference x. 192 A bare ground wire rubbing against a chassis or wireway can cause a considerable amount of noise in a system.
1909Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 4/2 The Humber detachable *wire wheel..is said to be 50 per cent. stronger than wood. 1912Motor Manual (ed. 14) (Advt., rear cover), Rudge-Whitworth detachable wire wheels lengthen the life of tyres 70%. 1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 4 July 26/4 (Advt.), Sport Roadster $675 delivered. Racy streamlines, wire wheels, [etc.]. 1963[see gas n.1 5 d]. 1976N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone i. 8 A classic 1948 MG-TC with running board and wire wheels.
1958J. Cannan And be Villain iii. 71 A cupboard where detergents, a reserve of dishcloths and the rolls of *wire wool were kept. 1977‘J. le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy xii. 264 His hair was like wire wool crimped into small trenches.
1894Westm. Gaz. 22 Jan. 4/3 These *wire-wound guns have been approved of, and are supposed to be nearly 40 per cent. stronger than the present type of heavy ordnance. 1910H. M. Hobart Dict. Electr. Engin. I. 32/1 Wire-wound Armature, the armature of an electric generator or motor which is wound with wire, in contradistinction to one of which the winding consists of bars. 1931Boys' Mag. XLV. 125/2 The potentiometer should be a ‘Colvern’, wire wound. 1946Nature 30 Nov. 799/2 The development of a vitreous enamel coating for fixed wire-wound resistors. 1975D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. vii. 7 Rheostat (Power). These are variable wire-wound resistors used as speed controls.
b. In the names of various plants with slender wiry stems (see quots. and wire-grass).
1756P. Browne Jamaica 126 The small Wire-rush. The larger Wire-rush. Both these little plants are very frequent in the swamps of Jamaica. 1797J. Bailey & Culley Agric. Northumbld. 127 Nardus stricta. Wirebent. 1827in Bischoff Van Diemen's Land (1832) 167 We were several hours struggling through thick scrub and wireweed. a1850W. A. Bromfield Flora Vect. (1856) 434 Polygonum aviculare..Wire-weed. 1866Treas. Bot., Wire-bent.
¶ From the 15th to the 17th century examples of wire occur app. with the sense ‘iron’, ? by confusion with the old form ire. (Cf. wiry ¶ .)
1406York Wills (Surtees) I. 343 Lego Roberto Brid j wyrehatt cum j Carlele ax. 1455in Archæologia XVI. 126 A Wyre hatt garnysshed y⊇ bordour Serkyll. 1567Aldeburgh Rec. in N. & Q. 12th Ser. VII. 142/2 Makynge wheire gudgyons. 1582N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. 42 A wether cock, made likewise of wier [orig. di bronzo]. 1630Maldon (Essex) Docts. Bundle 217. No. 22 (MS.), iiii. Wyer candlesticks, 8d. 1682in H. More Contn. Remark. Stories 63 That a Wier-Candlestick..might be turned into Brass.
Add:[II.] [2.] g. [Perh. orig. an abbrev. of wire-tap n.] colloq. An electronic listening device or ‘bug’, esp. one which can be concealed on the person. Freq. in phr. to wear a wire.
1973R. Hayes Hungarian Game x. 72 I've got to get up to Electronics for a wire. 1982‘E. McBain’ Beauty & Beast xii. 182, I could wear a wire, be the easiest thing in the world to tape him that way. 1987R. Busby Snow Man iii. 31 Am I going to pat down Dad Garratt's boy looking for a wire, some gizmo no bigger than a belly-button? 1990Premiere May 100/2 He's being asked to wear a wire and eventually rat on his partners.
▪ II. wire, v.|waɪə(r)|
[f. wire n.]
†1.
a. To adorn with (gold) wire. Obs. rare.
13..K. Alis. 208 (MS. Laud) Her ȝelewe her was faire atired, Mid riche strenges of golde wyred.
†b. To entwine. Obs. rare.
c1645Howell Lett. i. xiv. (1650) I. 23 As the Vine her lovely Elm doth wire.
†c. intr. To wind or twist about. Obs. rare.
1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. iv. xxi, In small streams (through all the Island wiring).
2. trans. To furnish with a wire or wires.
a. To fasten, join, or fit with wire or wires; spec. to secure (the cork of a bottle, the bottle itself) with wire.
1435Churchw. Acc. St. Michael's, Oxford (MS.) i lib. of talow candell y-wyrede to the rode soler. 1551–2in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 73 For vj mouldes for serpentes for the same hedpeces—ijs. and for wyeryng of xj of those serpentes at viijd the pece—vijs. iiijd. 1683P. Lorrain tr. Muret's Rites Funeral To Rdr. A 4 b, A Skeleton how neatly soever hung and wir'd together, is not an Object so entertaining as a Venus. a1700Evelyn Diary 24 Aug. 1678, They..then put it [sc. pulp] into a vessell of water, in which they dip a frame closely wyred with wyre as small as a haire. 1706Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 226 One of the Sceleton's in y⊇ Anatomy Schoole was wired by one Wells a Smith. 1796M. Edgeworth Parent's Assistant (ed. 2) i. 74 Did not I order you..to carry these bottles to the cellar; and did not I charge you to wire the corks? 1828–32Webster, Wire,..to apply wire to, as in bottling liquors. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 295 The bottles should be wired down, and laid on their sides. 1837Miss Mitford Country Stories (1850) 124 He had written the label and wired the root. 1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 377 Jaw retained in position by wiring the fragments together.
b. To furnish with a wire support; to stiffen with wire.
1834J. R. Planché Brit. Costume 274 The ruff was..starched and wired as usual. 1882J. Ashton Soc. Life Reign Q. Anne I. xiii. 151 In 1711 the coats used to be wired to make them stick out. 1891Daily News 29 Apr. 7/1 Even ribbon loops are wired for hat and bonnet trimming.
c. To fence with wire: chiefly to wire in, to enclose with a wire fence. Also, to cover over with wire.
1691J. Gibson in Archæologia XII. 184 The enclosure wired-in for white pheasants and partridges. 1774J. Wesley Let. 26 July (1931) VI. 104 You must..wire over the cupola. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. I. viii. §17. 93 They will look as if they were meant to keep the central shaft together by wiring or caging it in; like iron rods set round a supple cylinder. 1854Poultry Chron. II. 60 A range of tables, the under part of which was wired in to form pens for the geese.
d. To strengthen or protect with (barbed) wire.
1881Mrs. P. O'Donoghue Ladies on Horseback 181 Wire the fences if necessary; but at the commencement of the hunting season, cut away, say twenty yards of the wiring. 1917Blackw. Mag. May 737/2 Every night parties sallied forth, some to wire, others to repair the parapet.
e. To furnish with electric wires; to make electrical connections to; to connect electrically to; to provide with by means of connecting wires; spec. to fit with a concealed listening device. Also with up.
1891E. I. Bax Pop. Electr. Lighting iv. 27 To admit of this the expense of wiring the room will have to be increased. 1892A. Fahie House Lighting by Electr. 77 The..cost of wiring houses of different sizes. 1898Daily News 27 Aug. 6/4 Nearly every street of importance had been wired. 1923Wireless World 19 May 205/2 It is preferable to wire the valve panel before fixing it to the baseboard. 1960Practical Wireless XXXVI. 393/1 The heater circuit is best wired first, leads being run close against the chassis. 1970J. Earl Tuners & Amplifiers vi. 140 It is not usually difficult to wire the stereo loudspeaker pair and programme sources for the correct left and right channels. 1978S. Brill Teamsters iv. 144 The prosecutor wired Henderson's phone so that there would be tapes of Faugno and Andretta threatening him. 1978Australian 21 Aug. 9/2 One in every five homes with television are wired to a cable system. 1982Sci. Amer. Sept. 68/2 The explosive charge is wired with electric blasting caps and detonated from a safe distance. 1983J. Fuller Convergence xxx. 303 Just tell the truth... We have to wire you up.
f. To incorporate (a facility, etc.) into a device by electric wiring. Cf. wired-in a. 2.
1962Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery V. 159/1 A scheme for wiring binary-to-decimal conversion into a machine at a small cost.
3. To catch or trap in a wire snare. Also fig.
1749Fielding Tom Jones iii. x, He said that George had wired Hares. 1771in Hone Every-day Bk. (1827) II. 207 Court. A sturdy beggar! We must find out some means of wiring that fellow! 1798Southey Engl. Ecl., Sailor's Mother 110 But he was caught In wiring hares at last. 1836Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xx, Why, if he aint snared, Sam; he is properly wired, I declare. 1851Newland Erne v. 136, I recollect wiring a great lumping chubb once. I caught him asleep.
4. pass. and intr. (also with in) Of a horse's foot: To be contracted in the heel; to be affected with ‘wire heel’; also trans., to cause to be ‘wired’.
1614, etc. [see wired ppl. a. 4]. 1753J. Bartlet Gentl. Farriery (1754) 309 This turns them narrow above, wires their heels, and dries..the frog. 1831Youatt Horse 293 Many persons reject a horse..if the quarters are wiring in.
5. Croquet. To place one's own or an opponent's ball so that a hoop intervenes between it and its object: with ball or player as obj. Chiefly pass.
1866Croquet: Implements & Laws 10 A ball is Wired when it cannot effect the stroke desired on account of the leg of a hoop (wire) intervening. 1868W. J. Whitmore Croquet Tactics 21 To be wired is to have your ball in such a position that you cannot hit some other ball, or get through your hoop, because of a wire intervening. 1874J. D. Heath Croquet-player 54 It is useless to wire a ball from the player, if another ball, at which he would be more likely to shoot, is left unwired or ‘open’. Ibid. 71 Red..has wired the player for all the balls. 1904E. F. Benson Challoners i, Helen was standing close by her brother in the proud calm consciousness of having wired him with complete success.
6. To send (a message) ‘over the wires’, to telegraph; also absol. or intr.; transf. to send a telegraph message to; = telegraph v. 1. colloq.
1859Edin. Rev. Apr. 378 Another party, who are striving to debase the language by introducing the verb ‘to wire’, instead of the word hitherto used, ‘to telegraph’. 1863Dicey Federal St. I. 247 No intelligence could be ‘wired’, according to the American phrase. 1876‘E. Pinto’ Ye outside Fools! 17, I am going to wire my broker fellow to buy a couple of thousand Bs and Cs. 1883D. C. Murray Hearts xii, I want you to wire to Tom and demand the truth about the matter. 1883Leisure Hour 282/2 The relief train came up, news of the difficulty having been wired on. 1891‘Annie Thomas’ That Affair x, He was wired for to go and look at a pony.
7. intr. to wire in (rarely wire away), to get to work with a will, to apply oneself energetically to something; to wire into (a meal, etc.), to set about it with avidity. colloq. or slang.
Origin uncertain; cf. quot. 1870 and Slang Dict., 1874, where it is said that the orig. phr. is ‘wire in and get your name up’, an invitation to enter the ring for a contest.
1865Slang Dict. (ed. 3), Wire-in, a London street phrase in general use at the present time. 1870Daily News 16 Apr., We were politely told by Sandy to ‘wire in’—digger's phraseology for an invitation to commence. 1888Fortn. Rev. Jan. 93 In one fashion or another he ‘keeps wiring away’. 1891‘R. Boldrewood’ Sydney-side Saxon vi, I asked for work at the first station I came to, and though I was strange to it, I wired in with a will. 1894Sir J. D. Astley Fifty Yrs. Life II. 252 After wiring into a leg of mutton and rice-pudding, [I] turned into a..welcome bed.
8. [Cf. wire n. 13.] intr. To practise pick-pocketing; trans., to pick the pocket of. slang.
1853M. Carpenter Juvenile Delinquents i. 40 There are..at least ten times as many boys ‘wiring’ (picking pockets) as when I was young. Ibid. iv. 145 If he was bigger he could wire a man of his poke. 1891‘F. W. Carew’ No. 747 xxxv. 414, I used to go wirin' in the main-thoroughfares.
Add:[2.] g. fig. To cause (someone) to become tense or excited; also, to prepare psychologically, to ‘psych up’. Also refl. colloq.
1986Sunday Express Mag. 10 Aug. 28/4 They have to be highly-strung, crazy people; they have to, in order to wire themselves up to perform. 1987T. C. Boyle Hard Sell in Harper's Mag. Dec. 18/2, I sit him down and wire him up with about sixty cups of crank.
h. transf. To furnish or equip with a natural ability. Cf. *wired ppl. a. 10. colloq.
1988Psychol. Today June 1/3 (Advt.), Nature ‘wired’ you with capacities you haven't used.
▪ III. wire
var. vire n.2 Obs., virus. |