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单词 wire
释义

wiren.1

Brit. /ˈwʌɪə/, U.S. /ˈwaɪ(ə)r/
Forms: Old English–Middle English wir, Middle English weer, Middle English were, Middle English whir, Middle English (1500s in print of lost Middle English MS) wyr, Middle English–1600s wyer, Middle English–1600s wyere, Middle English–1700s wyre, Middle English– wire, 1500s–1600s wyar, 1500s–1700s wiar, 1500s–1700s wier, 1700s whire; Scottish pre-1700 uear, pre-1700 veir, pre-1700 vyer, pre-1700 vyr, pre-1700 wayer, pre-1700 wayr, pre-1700 weire, pre-1700 were, pre-1700 weyer, pre-1700 weyir, pre-1700 weyre, pre-1700 wiyr, pre-1700 wyer, pre-1700 wyir, pre-1700 wyr, pre-1700 1700s–1800s wear, pre-1700 1700s– weer, pre-1700 1700s– weir, pre-1700 1700s– wire, pre-1700 1800s wyre, 1700s weyr, 1700s wier, 1800s wair, 1800s ware (Shetland), 1800s weere, 1900s– waer (Shetland), 1900s– waire.
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Middle Low German wīre , Old Icelandic vírr (in víravirki filigree work), Swedish regional vir , and also (probably showing lowering of *ī before r ) Old High German wiara , wiera gold or silver wire or thread, jewellery or ornamentation worked in such material (Middle High German wiere refined gold, ornamentation made of refined gold), ultimately < the same Indo-European base as (with different ablaut grade: zero-grade) ancient Greek ἶρις rainbow, halo (earlier *ϝῖρις : see iris n.), probably < an extended form (r -extension) of the same Indo-European base as withe n. Further Germanic cognates could be shown by East Frisian wīr and West Frisian wīr, although they may simply show loans < Middle Low German.It is often assumed, on phonological grounds, that some or all of the words in Germanic languages do not show a direct development from Indo-European, but instead show transmission (entirely or partly) via Celtic; however, the assumption that the High German forms show lowering of *ī before r removes the supposed phonological difficulty. In sense 9c perhaps originally shortened < wiretap n.
I. With reference to the material.
1. As a mass noun: metal formed into a long, slender, flexible rod or strand, usually circular in section; (in later use also) several such strands combined together to form a similar composite structure. As a count noun: a type or form of this.Archaeological evidence suggests that in antiquity a variety of methods were employed to produce wire, including hammering, cutting, and rolling. However, since at least the medieval period it has principally been manufactured by the technique of wire-drawing (cf. wire-drawing n. 3), originally carried out by hand but later as part of a mechanized process.Uses of wire vary according to the properties of the metal employed, although typical applications include fencing and (in later use) conducting electricity (see sense 9). In early use the word was frequently applied to fine wire made of precious metal, esp. gold, chiefly for use in ornamentation.From the 13th to the 16th cent. golden hair was often poetically likened to gold wire; cf. sense 17a.
a. Simply.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > tool > types of tools generally > [noun] > wire
wireOE
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > metal in specific state or form > [noun] > wire
wireOE
wiring1804
OE Riddle 20 4 Beorht seomad [read seomað] wir ymb þone wælgim þe me waldend geaf.
OE Riddle 26 14 Forþon me gliwedon wrætlic weorc smiþa, wire bifongen.
1348 Accts. Exchequer King's Remembrancer 470/18 m. 6 In Wir empt[o] pro fistula conducti mundanda, iiij. d.
c1390 Pistel of Swete Susan (Vernon) l. 192 Hir hed [v.r. here] was ȝolow as wyre.
1482 in L. T. Smith York Plays (1885) Introd. p. xl [Pinners and Wiredrawers] makes pynnes or draweth wyre.
1497 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 100 Wire for prymers.
1508 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1902) IV. 113 Item..for wyir to the pottar of Strivelin to bind the gun muld v s.
a1525 (?1435) Coventry Leet Bk. (1907) I. 182 Yif the cardwiredrawer were ones or thies disseyued withe ontrewe wire he wolde be warre.
1532 (c1385) Usk's Test. Loue in Wks. G. Chaucer iii. f. cccliiii The euen draught of the wyre drawer, maketh the wyre to ben euen and supple werchynge.
1572 in A. Feuillerat Documents Office of Revels Queen Elizabeth (1908) 159 ij lb of drawen wyer—iijs. iiij d.
1618 in Archaeologia (1937) 41 254 All his silver made up in wyer.
1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. i. 14 Iron used for making of Wyer, which of all other sorts is the softest and toughest.
1756 in B. Franklin Exper. Electr. (1769) 280 Whether a river..may not be made part of the circuit through which the electric fire passes? instead of the circuit all of wire.
1791 Times 2 Mar. 3/3 Another vessel is also sunk on the Goodwin Sands, with wool, wire, and lead, supposed from Altona to Hamburg.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 786 The parts are then to be joined properly together, and kept in that state, by means of wire.
1839 A. Ure 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.
1883 Philos. Trans. 174 28 The determinations of r were made in all cases with unstretched pieces of the different wires..but in the cases of tin and lead it was found very difficult to obtain good observations.
1914 R. H. Grant Manuf. Steel Balls (‘Machinery’ Ref. Bk. No. 116) i. 10 In Fig. 7 is shown a regular wire straightener and cutting-off machine by which a coil of wire was straightened and then cut into short lengths called ‘slugs’.
1963 H. R. Clauser Encycl. Engin. Materials 452/1 Tubing and rod stock manufacture, plus the coating of wire and cable, are the major forms of nylon extrusion.
1995 Metallurgia (Nexis) Aug. 287 Wire made up of tinned strands will solder successfully using the ultrasonic process.
2001 O. Sacks Uncle Tungsten v. 51 But to get the requisite resistance, one had to use a great length of spidery-thin wire, zigzagging it inside the bulb to make a complex cagelike filament.
b. With modifying word denoting the constituent metal, as brass wire, gold wire, copper wire, iron wire, magnesium wire, etc.
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c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 3513 His hæð [read hæd] wes swulc swa beoð gold wir.
a1400 MS Westm. Abbey 34/11 in Notes & Queries (1981) Feb. 14/2 Filum ferreum est arguill.., irne wyr.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. ii. l. 11 Fetislich hir fyngres were fretted with golde wyre And þere-on red rubyes.
a1425 (?c1350) Ywain & Gawain (1964) l. 2967 Many maidens þare he sese Wirkand silk and gold-wire.
c1500 (?a1437) Kingis Quair (1939) i (MED) In Aquary, Citherea the clere Rynsid hir tressis like the goldin wyre.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. iv. sig. P7v [He] Shakt his long locks, colourd like copper-wyre.
1669 S. Sturmy Summary of Penalties & Forfeitures in Mariners Mag. 2 Iron Wyre, or whited Wyre, are forfeited if any such be Imported.
1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant iii. 46 Fasten to each of the two pieces that are to enter into one another, some Iron, Copper, or Silver wire, turned Screw-wise.
1700 J. Brome Trav. iii. 184 [Highlanders] delight much in Musick, but chiefly in Harps and Clarishoes of their own Fashion, the strings of which are made of Brass-Wire, and the strings of their Harps with Sinews.
1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 1 Apr. (1965) I. 342 [The] Cushions..are gennerally Brocade or embroidery of Gold Wire upon Satin.
1796 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 86 260 A small piece of fine cambric, or reticulated silver wire stretched before it.
1831 G. Henson Civil Hist. Framework-knitters i. 32 To draw gold and silver wire for the use of ‘Orris’, or gold and silver lace weavers, is the utmost perfection of that business.
1892 Proc. Royal Soc. 1891 50 408 Another line was coincident..with the radiation at λ 500 from burning magnesium wire.
1903 Electr. World & Engineer 29 Aug. 341 (Cent. Dict. Suppl.) The stranded conductors are universally made of very fine copper or copper bronze wire, or what is technically called tinsel.
1915 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. Feb. 377/2 What Professor Flinders Petrie has sent us from the discoveries..at Harageh..consists of..much of Dynasty XII—a model amulet-case of wood bound with gold wire.
1936 E. A. Atkins & A. G. Walker Electr. Arc & Oxy-acetylene Welding (ed. 3) xvii. 248 Perhaps it will be interesting to follow the changes that take place in a piece of 16 gauge mild steel wire as it is heated up to various temperatures.
1965 Limnol. & Oceanogr. 10 147/1 The cathode is made from a shallow Lucite cup with a center post of 18-gauge platinum wire.
1999 New Yorker 19 July 46/3 She had a powerful idea: to supply wireless telephone service in Africa and other emerging-market areas with radio-based phones, which would circumvent the threat of stolen copper wire and vandalized telephone booths.
c. With modifying word denoting the form, colour, use, etc., as baling wire, black wire, insulated wire, small wire, etc.binding, electric, fencing, fuse, piano, telephone, white wire, etc.: see the first element.
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a1525 (?1435) Coventry Leet Bk. (1907) I. 183 Ne Cardwyre ne mystermannes wyre.
1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. iii. xviii. f. 116v/1, in R. Holinshed Chron. I [Iron] of such toughnesse, that it yeeldeth to the makyng of Claricord wire.
1600 E. Fairfax tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne ii. xxvi. 24 They..bound her tender armes in twisted wire.
1654 F. W. Observ. in Fulke's Meteors (new ed.) 164 Though Gold be drawn into the smallest wire.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Superfine, very fine or thin; as Superfine Wire, Thread, Cards, &c.
1748 W. Watson in Philos. Trans. 1747 (Royal Soc.) 44 714 Cork'd, with a Staple of small Wire running through each Cork into the Water.
1837 L. Hebert Engin. & Mech. Encycl. II. 906 Rolled or ‘black wire,’ (as it is sometimes called, to distinguish it from the bright, or drawn-wire).
1872 D. R. Locke Struggles of Petroleum V. Nasby clvii. 503 Twas him wich conceeved the idea uv braidin small wire into the lashes uv nigger whips.
1922 Outing June 110/2 The time was now come..to get out..rope and baling wire.
2000 Sci. Amer. Jan. 66/1 The second critical element is the track, which is embedded with closely packed coils of insulated wire.
d. This material as used for fencing or (esp. on a battlefield) as an obstruction or defence; (hence) any restricted border or perimeter, esp. that of a prison or military entrenchment. Cf. barbed wire n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > closed or shut condition > that which or one who closes or shuts > a barrier > [noun] > hedge or fence > a fence > wire fence > fencing-wire
barbed wire1874
barbwire1874
wire1876
fencing-wire1878
fish-hook wire1892
bob-wire1929
razor ribbon1975
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > barricade > [noun] > barbed wire
wire entanglement1871
barbed wire1900
wire1915
concertina1917
apron1918
dannert wire1945
1876 Field 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.
1915 Daily News 6 Jan. 4 Four German snipers were shot on our wire.
1950 Times 26 July 8/5 A number of British officers..did use the vaulting horse..as a means of tunnelling themselves out beyond the wire.
1954 W. Faulkner Fable 345 The pennon on its bonnet will take you anywhere in Europe west of the German wire.
1991 Utne Reader July 103/2 Beyond the wire were more woods, as the schoolkids had said.
2002 B. B. Watson Far Eastern Tour v. 83 With the Chinese just outside their wire, the RCRs were unable to send out their own patrols.
II. Senses denoting a length of wire used in particular applications.
2. A piece or length of wire.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > fastenings > [noun] > other fastenings
wire1426–7
drawbar1530
button1676
strap1753
dog bolt1810
quick-set1842
turn-buckle1877
bottle screw1903
ziplock1956
OE Riddle 40 47 Ic eom fægerre frætwum goldes, þeah hit mon awerge wirum utan.
OE Ruin 20 Hygerof gebond weallwalan wirum wundrum togædre.
OE Andreas (1932) 302 Næbbe ic fæted gold ne feohgestreon, welan ne wiste ne wira gespann, landes ne locenra beaga.
c1400 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe (Cambr. Dd.3.53) (1872) ii. §38. 46 In centre of the compas stike an euene pyn or a whir vp-riht.
a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1882) iii. l. 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.
1426–7 in H. Littlehales Medieval Rec. London City Church (1905) 63 Ffirst payd for the sepulcre for diuers naylis & wyres & glu, ix d.
c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 1205 Vp on a courser stertelynge as the fyr Men myghte turne hym with a litil wyr Sit Enyas.
1469 Rolls of Parl. VI. 232 A Image of lede..broken in the myddes, and made fast with a Wyre.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. lij I haue distroyed Rycharde Hun... I put a wyre in his nose.
1572 in A. Feuillerat Documents Office of Revels Queen Elizabeth (1908) 159 Greate wyers that went crosse the hall.
1581 W. Borough Discours Variation Cumpas ii. sig. 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.
1616 A. Rathborne Surveyor 126 On the head or top of which shorter sight, must be placed a wyer or brasse pin.
1680 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. x. 179 Through this Button should be fastned an Iron Wyer.
1695 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. III. v. 244 Round Wires of Gold put into the Ears.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Mould Moulds in the Manufacture of Paper, are little Tables composed of several Brass or Iron Wires tied to each other by another Wire still finer.
1774 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 63 327 Two wires of about the size of a goose-quill.
1811 Bk. Trades (ed. 4) iii. 67 The mould, which the paper-maker has in his hand, is composed of many wires set in a frame close together.
1857 W. A. Miller Elements Chem.: Org. (1862) iv. §1. 270 [The soap] is cut up with wires into bars.
1883 R. Broughton Belinda III. iii. ix. 59 The door-bell may ring itself off its wire.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 6 Feb. 4/2 The high-tension wires are moulded in one, forming a multicore cable.
1954 R. H. Cochrane Farm Machinery & Tractors (ed. 2) 68 The grader consists of a series of wires, the distance between the wires being smallest where the grain enters and increasing progressively towards the other end.
1986 E. Ní Chuilleanáin Second Voy. 23 The..tunnels in walls Made by the wires of bells, and the shadows of square spaces Left high on kitchen walls By the removal of those bells on their boards.
2002 Beadwork Dec. 44/1 Use the chain-nose pliers to very gently twist the two wires around each other a few times.
3. As a count noun: each of a set of metallic strings on a musical instrument. As a mass noun: †such strings collectively (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > stringed instruments > [noun] > parts generally > string > types of
wirea1387
false string1597
unison1603
unison string1633
drone1793
music wire1823
silver string1876
sympathetic strings1888
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > stringed instruments > harp or lyre > [noun] > parts of > string
harp-stringc1000
wirea1387
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 355 (MED) Irische men beeþ connyng..in harpe and tymbre þat is i-armed wiþ wire and wiþ strenges of bras.
a1596 G. Peele Loue King Dauid & Fair Bethsabe (1599) Prol. sig.Bj When his consecrated fingers strooke The golden wiers of his rauishing harpe.
1673 J. Milton At Vacation Exercise in Poems (new ed.) 65 Apollo sings To th' touch of golden wires.
1718 M. Prior Solomon on Vanity iii, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 497 They breath the Flute, or strike the vocal Wire.
1780 W. Cowper Progress of Error 126 When he has pray'd and preach'd the sabbath down, With wire and catgut he concludes the day.
1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music at Viol d'amour A viol, or violin, furnished with six brass or steel wires, instead of sheep's-gut.
1819 P. B. Shelley Rosalind & Helen 60 From the twinkling wires among, My languid fingers drew and flung Circles of life dissolving sound.
1863 Continental Monthly Dec. 700/1 It is, in fact, an upright harp, played by keys which strike the wires by a pianoforte action, which has an ordinary piano keyboard.
1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 112/2 In the violin and in the pianoforte, the lower notes are obtained from wires formed of denser material.
1938 E. G. Richardson Physical Sci. Mod. Life i. 20 The Aeolian harp..consisting of a set of wires strung across a framework, intended to be hung up by an open window or other draughty place.
1953 G. Willans Down with Skool! v. 83 Hav you practised sabotage against the skool piano by cutting wires so that low C sounds plunk?
2003 Daily Tel. 4 Mar. 35/1 Having spent a considerable time renovating an 1830s Broadwood cabinet piano, including re-stringing in the original iron and brass wires, now comes the task of tuning.
4. A snare for catching rabbits or other animals, typically consisting of a length of wire formed into a noose which tightens when the animal runs into it.
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the world > food and drink > hunting > equipment > trap or snare > [noun] > trap for rabbit or hare
hare-pipe1389
wire1749
tipe1788
turnpike1879
1579 Poore Knight his Pallace sig. K.iiv The silly Mouse which hath escaped the wire, Will long beware for touching of the same.
1701 J. Collier tr. L. Moréri Great Hist. Dict. (new ed.) I. at Baroche This they reach out towards the Peacocks, who stretch out their Necks to admire the Light, and so are taken with Snares and Wires that are tied to the long Poles.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. vi. xii. 311 He himself had passed through that Field, in order to lay Wires for Hares. View more context for this quotation
1819 Sporting Mag. New Ser. 4 210 Fix here and there a large bush..and close to each bush two ‘wires’.
1846 J. R. Planché tr. Aristophanes Birds 13 Lime-twigs beat bushes, hunt through brakes and briers, Lay snares, gins, meshes, traps, and traitorous wires.
1922 Times 27 Oct. 18/5 There is an infinitely greater cruelty employed in catching rabbits and other animals than by the use of wires or snares.
1995 W. McDonald Counting Survivors 33 I shove sticks down to make mad rattlers strike, snare them with wires and cage them.
5. Theatre.
a. A metal line used to suspend or move performers or stage machinery in the air as part of a performance; also figurative and in figurative contexts (cf. machine n. 4a). Also (in later use): a line attached to a safety harness worn by a performer to prevent injury in the event of a fall from a height.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > theatrical equipment or accessories > [noun] > machinery for effects > for flying
wire1607
traveller1859
flying machine1881
1607 F. Beaumont Woman Hater iii. i. sig. D4v Like dead motions mouing vpon wyers.
a1680 J. Glanvill Saducismus Triumphatus (1681) ii. 42 [Miracles] were so easie to be done..by Wiers and Juggling.
1736 Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 617/1 One James Todd..at the Theatre in Covent-Garden, fell from the upper Stage, in a flying Machine, the Wires breaking.
1822 New Monthly Mag. (U.S. ed.) 3 560 He seemed perplexed and toiling to think..whether there were not some unseen wires by which the actor was upheld in his stupendous flights between heaven and earth.
1881 C. C. Harrison Woman's Handiwork Mod. Homes iii. 152 All the little invisible wires that control the scenery and ‘stage setting’ of a home-interior.
1914 Times 22 Apr. 7/4 Since the first scene now creates a real illusion it would be worth while to perfect it by concealing the wires by which the maidens are suspended.
1967 Jrnl. Aesthetics & Art Crit. 26 137/2 Sylphs were occasionally suspended on wires so that they could fly across the stage.
2004 Seattle Times (Nexis) 20 June 6 It is a basic move, one his instructor..makes look as easy as tying a shoe. But Schwartz and others in this particular class are beginners, and they are working without a wire.
2007 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 1 Dec. (Features section) 2 Our Pan had to fly on a wire from the back of the theatre but got stuck in the middle, on the roof line, hanging over everyone's heads.
b. Each of the lines by which a puppet or marionette is manipulated. Frequently figurative and in figurative contexts, esp. in the phrase to pull (also move) the wires (cf. wire-puller n.). Cf. string n. 1i.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > puppetry > [noun] > puppet > strings or wires of
wire1656
string1860
society > authority > power > influence > have influence [verb (intransitive)] > exert influence > behind the scenes
to pull (also move) the wires1813
to pull (also work) the ropes1841
to pull the strings1860
to pull strings1924
society > authority > control > be in control [verb (intransitive)] > have in one's control
to find (know, etc.) the length (also measure) of a person's foot1580
to have the ball at one's foot (feet) (also before one)?c1625
to pull (also move) the wires1834
1656 J. Collop Poesis Rediviva 40 Puppits which move by phancies wire, Let th' rich in fooleries desire.
1685 W. Clark Grand Tryal ii. v. 33 A thing [sc. a human body], so long as Soul doth it inspire, Moves for a time, like [a] Puppet on a Wyre; That gone, it moves, it prats, it squeeks no more.
a1704 T. Brown Walk round London in 3rd Vol. Wks. (1708) iii. 14 A Guide, that..can do no more for them, than the Wire in the Finger of the Poppet-Player.
1734 J. Swift Strephon & Cloe in Beautiful Young Nymph 23 From yonder Puppet-Man inquire, Who wisely hides his Wood and Wire.
1813 Deb. Congr. U.S. 5 Jan. (1853) 12th Congr. 2nd Sess. 562 When those who pulled the wires saw fit, they passed away.
1834 S. 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.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. xciv. 321 A demagogue of greater talent..may practically pull the wires of a President whom he has put into the chair.
1919 Times 12 June 10/1 The second pulled the wires and put into action the formidable machinery of the Church militant.
1976 Diacritics 6 45 In Bunraku the puppet is not held by any wire.
1988 G. Lees Meet me at Jim & Andy's v. 72 He knew Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, and he pulled wires.
2007 Baltimore Sun (Nexis) 12 Dec. The plot is as transparent as the wires used to manipulate the puppets.
†6. A lash or scourge made of wire. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > corporal punishment > instrument or place of corporal punishment > [noun] > whip or scourge > whip-lash > material of
whipcord1318
whip line1582
wirea1627
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) ii. v. 65 Thou shalt be whipt with Wyer.]
a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Changeling (1653) i. sig. C2v Peace, peace, or the wyer comes.
1630 W. Vaughan Newlanders Cure i. 37 Our Papists need not afflict their Bodies, as many of them do, with languishing Fasts, Bodily labours, Whip-cords, Wyres of Steele.
1664 J. Owen Vindic. Animadversions Fiat Lux xvi. 415 The Whips, Wires and Racks that he makes use of in his Inquisition.
7. Each of the narrow metal bars of a cage of the kind used for birds or small animals.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping birds > [noun] > bird-cage
birdcage1490
wire1628
1628 Z. Boyd Last Battell Soule viii. 106 My poore Soule in this bodie is like a Bird in a Cage looking through the wyres.
1657 J. Beale Herefordshire Orchards 8 A constant aviary of sweet singers, which are here retained without the charge or violence of the Italian Wiers.
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa III. lxxv. 348 It [sc. a captive bird] beats and bruises itself against its wires.
1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) vii. 63 A new cage with gilded wires.
1938 Amer. Home Jan. 40/2 How many bird owners, for instance, think nothing of poking a finger through the wires of the cage and making a soft kissing or hissing noise with the lips.
2001 Mammalian Species No. 681. 3/1 Captive striped weasels clean their face by rubbing against cage wires.
8. Either of the thin metal wires fixed horizontally and vertically at the focus of a telescope, to aid with the observation or tracking of an object in the field of view.Cf. cross-wire n. at cross- comb. form 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > [noun] > instrument for looking through > parts of
sight-hole1559
aperture1665
diaphragm1665
reticule1728
reticle1731
wire1737
web1746
screena1764
eye cap1822
spider-line1829
cobweb1837
slit1863
1737 W. Gardiner Pract. Surv. Improved v. 102 I move the Double-Sextant vertically, till the lower edge of the horizontal wire in the Telescope cuts the lower edge of the Sun's body.
1780 Philos. Trans. 1779 (Royal Soc.) 69 332 A method of moving the eye-tube which contains the wires of the telescope..has been practised.
1897 A. H. Miles Conc. Knowl. Astron. ii. xv. 195 It is by constantly keeping the image of a star at the intersection of these ‘wires’ that the operator ensures the images remaining in a constant position upon the sensitive plate.
1934 H. S. Jones Gen. Astron. (new ed.) iv. 82 In the meridian circle, the framework carrying the horizontal wire and the system of vertical wires is moveable in the meridian at right angles to the telescope axis.
2005 J. Mullaney Double & Multiple Stars v. 52 This employs one of several commercially available reticle or guiding eyepieces... No wires or moving parts are involved.
9.
a. A wire for carrying an electric current. Also occasionally figurative.earth, electric, fuse, power wire: see the first element. See also live wire n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > transmission of electricity, conduction > wire as conductor > [noun]
wire1746
electric wire1819
rheophore1827
live wire1881
line1886
power wire1890
1746 B. Martin Ess. Electr. 32 All the Electricity running thro' the Wire into the Water, is there condensed.
1796 Imison'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.].
1812 H. Davy Elements Chem. Philos. 104 Wires for passing the electrical spark.
1841 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 19 271 To the electrodes of this battery thick copper wires were secured, so that by means of one of them connexion could be made to the galvanometer, and by means of the other, to the decomposing cell.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda III. vi. xlviii. 336 Political and social movements touched him only through the wire of his rental.
1904 Collier's 7 May 21/2 The outside end of the wire was connected to an electric battery, and the circuit completed by a metallic plate on the patient's back.
1944 G. Henderson Farming Ladder xv. 174 The calves..are confined with a single, thin strand of wire, electrically charged, and which they graze up to, but do not touch.
2008 Observer (Nexis) 4 May (Sport section) 14 The..first game at the 90,000-capacity Eden Gardens was interrupted after someone stole the wires connecting the floodlights to the electricity supply.
b. spec. in telecommunications.
(a) A wire connecting the transmitting and receiving elements in a telegraph or telephone network.land, private, telegraph, telephone wire: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > [noun] > line
wire1813
line1847
wire line1848
loop1863
landline1865
saddle wire1876
telephone line1877
concentric cable1888
Pupin cable1904
multiple twin1922
quad1922
twisted pair1923
star quad1927
music line1929
coaxial cable1934
coax1945
1813 Satirist; or, Monthly Meteor Sept. 200 On the Report, that it is in Contemplation to substitute an electrical Mode of Communication with the Outports (by means of Wires laid under Ground) for the existing telegraphic System.
1846 Punch 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.
1879 G. B. Prescott Speaking Telephone (new ed.) 108 The telephone presents facilities for the dangerous practice of tapping the wire.
1937 H. G. Wells Star Begotten vii. 128 He assembled by wire and telephone all his most trusted henchmen.
1965 B. Took & M. Feldman in B. Took & M. Coward Best of ‘Round The Horne’ (2000) 1st Ser. Programme 5. 17/2 I ripped the telephone off its wire and threw it out the window.
1994 Chapman No. 77. 28 The telegraph-poled sky is cut by wires, Its curds of cumulus rejoining all the time.
(b) The telegraphic system; chiefly in by (†the) wire: by telegraph. Hence (colloquial): a telegraphic message; a telegram (cf. cable n. 3c).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > [adverb]
telegraphically1799
by (the) wire1856
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > [noun] > telegraphic message
telegraph message1806
telegraph1821
telegram1852
wire1856
flash1857
telegrapheme1857
telepheme1857
gram1891
tar1893
1856 Let. 10 Mar. in E. T. Hurlstone & J.P. Norman Exchequer Rep. (1857) I. 900 After receiving back the latter [sc. a memorandum of charter] accepted and signed, the same was made known at once by wire to the owner.
1861 A. Trollope Framley Parsonage II. ii. 23 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.
1883 Harper's Mag. July 255/1 The forte of the Enquirer is its voluminous correspondence, both by wire and mail.
1920 ‘K. Mansfield’ Let. 14 Jan. (1993) III. 181 I will send you a wire immediately I know the date of our leaving.
1941 Times 4 Mar. 2/3 The British organization..is continually sending inquiries by wire to Geneva on behalf of anxious relations of men still missing.
2007 Florida Keys Keynoter (Nexis) 18 Aug. You were out of town, but it seems to me that you probably weren't out of communication... You could have sent a wire..to us.
(c) The telephone system; an individual telephone connection. Frequently in phrases as, over the wire (or †wires), on the wire, etc. Now rare. Cf. line n.2 1e(a).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > line
line1900
wire1902
phone line1935
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > the telephone system
wire1925
1902 Chambers'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.
1925 H. 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.
1935 W. Cather Lucy Gayheart i. vii. 51 Every day his concert agent..called him up as soon as his wire was open.
1947 S. Bellow Victim xxiii. 280 He ought to have spoken to Nunez about the broken chain while he was on the wire.
1974 P. G. Wodehouse Aunts aren't Gentlemen iii. 24 And now for heaven's sake get off the wire, I'm busy.
(d) Originally U.S. = newswire n. 2. Cf. wire service n. at Compounds 2a.
ΚΠ
1927 H. Asbury in G. Overton Mirrors of Year 6 Generally these bureaus maintain connections with Manhattan newspapers, and the stories of the latter are put on the wire without substantial editing or rewriting.
1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 17 July (1970) 301 There was practically nothing reported on the national wire about it.
1979 A. Hailey Overload (new ed.) iv. viii. 333 No problem, I'll have it [sc. an announcement] on the wires this afternoon.
1981 M. Byrd Fly away, Jill viii. 74 I could always go back to writing travel articles for the wires.
1991 Daily Tel. 7 Feb. The Syrian news agency Sana was not ‘authorised’ to run the news on its wire.
c. colloquial (originally U.S.). An electronic listening or recording device designed to be concealed on a person as part of a police investigation or intelligence gathering operation. Frequently in to wear a wire.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > hear [verb (intransitive)] > listen > eavesdrop > by listening device on person
to wear a wire1973
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > audibility > sound magnification or reproduction > [noun] > microphone
carbon transmitter1878
microphone1878
carbon microphone1879
pantelephone1881
phonoscope1890
mike1911
condenser microphone1921
magnetophone1922
radio microphone1922
ionophone1924
crystal microphone1925
ribbon microphone1925
radio mike1926
laryngophone1927
velocity microphone1931
ribbon mike1933
pressure microphone1934
bug1936
eight ball1937
ribbon1937
throat microphone1937
throat mike1937
rifle microphone1938
parabolic microphone1939
lip microphone1941
intercept1942
spike mike1950
spy-mike1955
spy-microphone1960
mic1961
rifle mike1961
gun microphone1962
spike microphone1962
shotgun microphone1968
Lavallière1972
wire1973
sneaky1974
multi-mikes1990
1973 R. 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.
1987 R. 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?
2001 Bizarre July 99/3 While wearing a wire, she persuaded West to say ‘I did it. I killed both her parents.’
10. A knitting needle; spec. one of a pair of long, fine needles typically used for knitting stockings. Usually in plural. Now chiefly Scottish or historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > [noun] > knitting > needle
knitting-prick1597
knitting needle1598
needle1598
wire?1746
pina1825
prick1838
steel1839
knitting-wire1850
knitting-pin1857
?1746 Journey through Eng. & Scotl. vii. 72 They knit them [sc. stockings] all with Wires, the most Part plain, some ribed.
1773 R. Fergusson Poems 118 I wyt they are as protty hose As come frae weyr or leem.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 805/1 The method of knitting stockings by wires or needles.
1814 W. Johnston tr. J. Beckmann Hist. Inventions & Discov. (ed. 2) IV. 310 Most of the Wirtemberg stocking-knitters, at present, knit with two wires and a sheath.
1827 W. Scott 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.
1854 B. P. Shillaber Life & Sayings Mrs. Partington 194 She closed her critique with a pinch of snuff, and got on to her wires again like a telegraphic despatch, and went ahead.
a1878 J. Watson in D. H. Edwards 100 Mod. Sc. Poets (1880) 1st Ser. 39 She's handy an' quick wi' her weirs an' her needles.
1928 Word-lore 3 149 As they hid a curn gey hallicat loons, her weirs didna roost.
1971 E. Zimmermann Knitting without Tears i. 15 I believe that this method originated when knitting was worked on extremely long needles (or ‘wires’).
1975 A. Deyell My Shetland 5 I do not remember the first time I had wires (knitting needles) in my hands, but little girls were taught to knit from about the age of three.
1998 S. Telford In World a wir Ane 7 The term ‘sheath’ for knitting belt is actually a Scottish one. ‘Makkin belt’ would be the Shetland equivalent, as would be ‘makkin wires’ for knitting needles.
11. Croquet. One of the metal hoops or arches through which the balls are driven. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > croquet > [noun] > hoop
wicket1868
wire1868
hoop1872
1868 Chambers'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).
1904 E. F. Benson Challoners i Martin..struck wildly in the hopes of an impossible cannon off the wire.
1956 Times 5 Apr. 12/2 A despairing shot at the hoop hit the outside of the near wire.
12.
a. U.S. Horse Racing. A (notional) wire marking the finish line (also by extension the start line) of a race.Chiefly in phrases: down to the wire, from wire to wire, under the wire (see also the extended uses at sense 12b).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > racing or race > [noun] > starting or finishing mark
base1602
post1642
race post1643
wire1871
tape1903
1871 Titusville (Pa.) Morning Herald 10 Sept. Olara..coming under the wire some four lengths in advance of Young Thorn.
1877 Ohio Democrat (New Philadelphia, Ohio) 30 Aug. ‘Ge!’ shrieked a strange tremulous voice, as the horse reached the wire.
1887 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 5 May 1/1 Eva K., Little Munch..were first under the wire.
1889 Scribner's Mag. July 35/2 As the end of the stand was reached Timarch worked up to Petrel, and the two raced down to the ‘wire’, cheered on by the applause of the spectators.
1920 C. Sandburg Smoke & Steel 138 He flashed his heels to other ponies..and hardly ever came under the wire behind the other runners.
1975 New 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.
2006 F1 Racing June 69 When the championship goes down to the wire and is dependent on one race, it doesn't do your nervous system any good.
b. colloquial (originally U.S.). In extended use: the decisive moment at the end of a contest or other sequence of events.Chiefly in phrases: down to the wire: to the very end; under the wire: within the limits or scope of something; (from) wire to wire: from start to finish.
ΚΠ
1929 M. C. Work Compl. Contract Bridge v. 75 There are some hands which may just ‘get under the wire’ of the above definitions.
1932 M. Anderson Both your Houses in K. Coe & W. H. Cordell Pulitzer Prize Plays 1918–34 (1935) 781/2 Just because a couple of guys got in under the wires with this information—they're the white-headed boys.
1950 Keowee Courier (Walhalla, S. Carolina) 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.
1974 State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 15 Feb. 4- b/5 Nicklaus..led from wire to wire in the Hawaiian Open [Golf Tournament].
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.
1984 Miami Herald 6 Apr. 22 a/1 Odds remain good that the Democrats' race will go down to the wire.
2007 Daily News (Plymouth, N.Z.) (Nexis) 10 Sept. (Sport) 14 Brogden took Hassan to the wire being pipped 7-6 in the first of three games against the star.
III. Senses denoting a network or framework of wire.
†13. An ornament made of (gold or silver) wire. Obsolete.Only in Old English.
ΚΠ
OE Riddle 20 32 Oft ic wirum dol wife abelge.
OE Beowulf (2008) 2413 Se [sc. eorðsele] wæs innan full wrætta ond wira.
†14. (a) A wire frame used to support the hair as part of a complex hairstyle; (b) a similar frame worn to support a ruff. Cf. supporter n. 3b, supportasse n., rebato n. 2. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautification of the hair > accessories worn in the hair > [noun] > supportive wire
wirec1475
palisado1607
palisadea1685
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > neck-wear > [noun] > ruff > pad or frame to support
burlet1490
supportasse1583
supporter1588
rebato1592
wire1603
c1475 (c1450) P. Idley Instr. to his Son (Cambr.) (1935) ii. A. 1794 (MED) She spareth for no cost to geve men appetite, To sett vp hir hornes with longe wires.
1583 P. Stubbes Anat. Abuses sig. Fii Least it [sc. the hair] should fall down it is vnder propped with forks, wyers & I can not tel what.
1595 Pleasant Quippes for Vpstart Gentle-women sig. A4 These flaming heades, with staring haire These wyers turnde, like hornes of Ram.
1603 in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. i. 31 For ane vyr to ver with ane French rouf v s.; item, for thri vyrs to uer vith Inglich roufs iii s.
a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Knight of Malta i. i, in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Iiiii4v/2 Unfledge 'em of their tyres, Their wyres,..pins, and perriwigs, And they appeare like bald cootes, in the nest.
a1685 M. Evelyn Fop-dict. 19 in Mundus Muliebris (1690) Palisade, a Wire sustaining the Hair next to the Dutchess, or first Knot.
1690 T. D'Urfey Collin's Walk iii. 115 Like buxom Lass, that trips Curanto With Wires, Comodes, and Topknots flaring.
1768 J. Cremer Jrnl. 19 July in R. R. Bellamy Ramblin' Jack (1936) 176 Mr Busby bought a fine Wiar..Suitable for an old woman's hair of her head, and verey grand it was to look at.
1893 G. Hill Hist. Eng. 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.]
15. Wirework; (now usually) wire mesh or netting.See also chicken wire n..
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > metal in specific state or form > [noun] > wire > wirework or wire netting
wire1547
chicken wire1887
1547 in A. Feuillerat Documents Office of Revels Edward VI (1914) 12 Twoo hattes..the Turffes of wyer couerid with clothe of golde.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 111 Also there is a delicate cage of birds, wrought about with thick wyer.
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1646 (1955) II. 484 There was in the middle of this Garden, a Cupola made of Wyre, & supported by slender pillars of brick.
1716 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1901) V. 260 It is pity the Windows of Fairford are not secured with Wire.
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §853 The dairy, the pantry, and the store room to have fly wire (wirecloth to exclude flies) inside of the windows.
1854 Poultry Chron. 2 303 Birds..in new and commodious pens, with galvanised wire fronts.
1935 W. H. Ukers All about Tea II. 515/1 Tat, a shelf made of wire or Hessian..on which green tea leaves are spread for withering.
1999 A. Walker Encycl. Falconry 132/2 Bal-chatri (India), Considered suitable for trapping small hawks, a hemispherical cage placed like an upturned bowl, with a live lure inside. The construction might be of split bamboo covered with net or wholly of wire.
16. Papermaking. A moving bed of wire mesh on which the pulp is deposited and allowed to drain, its fibres at this stage beginning to form a web. Cf. wire bed n. (b) at Compounds 2a, wire line n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > paper-making equipment > [noun] > wire bed
web1807
wire1825
wire bed1962
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1678 (1955) IV. 141 Upon this [frame] take up the papp, the superfluous water draining from it thro the wyres... The marks we find in the sheetes is formed in the wyres.]
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 375 In the modes of paper-making exercised hitherto, this indispensable object has been accomplished, by shaking the mould or wire on which the pulp is settling, so that, as the water runs off, the fibres are laid flat.
1881 Spons' Encycl. Industr. Arts IV. 1497 The ‘wire’ is an endless cloth made of very fine wire.
1975 U.S. Patent 3,871,952 1 It is known to manufacture paper and other nonwoven fibrous material by depositing a suspension of fibres in a liquid, usually water, onto a foraminous support, called the wire, of a paper-making machine.
1998 H. Tanaka in H. Ohshima & K. Furusawa Electr. Phenomena at Interfaces (ed. 2) xix. 389 The largest part of fillers and pulp fines will pass through the openings of papermaking wire.
IV. Miscellaneous uses.
17.
a. Something likened to wire or a wire in form, appearance, or texture. Frequently poetic and rhetorical.Esp. in early use, frequently applied to hair (cf. sense 1).In quot. a1728: †a branch-like appendage of a pentacrinite (fossil sea lily) (obsolete). In quot. 1882: †a wire-like thread of native silver (obsolete) (cf. wire silver n. at Compounds 2a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > hair > [noun]
hairc1000
wire1576
strummel1725
crowning glory1780
suit1803
floss1846
moss1847
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Echinodermata > [noun] > division Pelmatozoa > class Crinoidea > fossil or encrinite > family Pentacrinidae > branch-like appendage of star-stone
wirea1728
the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > native elements and alloys > [noun] > native silver
virgin silver1726
wire silver1867
wire1882
1576 S. Gosson Speculum Humanum in H. Kerton tr. Pope Innocent III Mirror Mans Lyfe (new ed.) sig. K. viii The wreathed haire of perfect golden wire, The cristel eyes, the shining Angels face.
1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. I3v Apollo..Cut off his lockes, and left them on hir head, And said; I plant these wires in Natures scorne.
1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets cxxx. sig. H4 If haires be wiers, black wiers grow on her head. View more context for this quotation
a1728 J. Woodward Attempt Nat. Hist. Fossils Eng. (1729) ii. 81 Several [Asteriæ], with some of those Branches that are wont to arise from them, call'd, by some, Wires.
1876 T. Hardy Hand of Ethelberta I. xv. 160 The sun was peeping out just previous to departure, and sent gold wires of light across the glades.
1882 Rep. Prec. Metals U.S. 200 The quartz shows much free gold and silver. The latter is in the form of nuggets and wires.
1897 H. Clifford In Court & Kampong 69 The bristling wires of whisker, the long cruel teeth [of a tiger].
1925 O. Sitwell in E. Sitwell et al. Poor Young People 4 Between the meshes of the light's gold wire.
1997 R. Carter Cosimo 36 When Assam was done rubbing lotions into the tight wires of hair on his chest, he went to the cupboard, and took out a meticulously ironed shirt.
b. A long thin stem, root, etc., of a plant; esp. a strawberry runner. Now English regional and rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > condition of being long in relation to breadth > [noun] > long narrow object (varied general uses)
straina1529
trait1561
thread1593
stream1597
wire1601
streak1726
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. xxv. ix. 228 (margin) The leaves of Cinquefoile are much like to the Strawberrie leafe: But as the one hath no fruit or berrie at all, so the other (to wit, the Strawberrie-wire) puts forth but three leaves.
1696 Philos. Trans. 1695–7 (Royal Soc.) 19 294 Capillaries..creeping on..the Ground, with Wires after the manner of Strawberries.
1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs I. 36 Cinquefoil..produces its Leaves..on a Stem, or Wire.
1793 J. Lodge Introd. Sketches Hist. Hereford 37 That when the wires or vines [of hops] spring up, they may not be too far separated to run up the poles.
1805 R. 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.
1859 W. S. Coleman Our Woodlands 92 There may they be seen, knee-deep in the ‘wires’, or clambering over the broken grey rocks.
1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. (at cited word) The runners of strawberry-plants, and the stiff, angular stems of the whortleberry shrub, are..called wires.
1974 P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry xii. 110 Strings and wires for strawberry runners.
†c. = wire edge n. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > bluntness > [noun] > blunt edge made by faulty sharpening
wire1698
wire edge1702
1698 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 20 418 I whetted it [sc. a knife] briskly on a dry dirty Threshold, and being thin, it became very hot towards the Point, the Edge being whet away to a Wire, as they term it.
1800 Jrnl. Nat. Philos. June 132 The grindstone leaves a ragged edge, which it is the first effect of whetting to reduce so thin, that it may be bended backwards and forwards. This flexible part is called the wire.
18. Anything non-metallic having the form or function of wire.
ΚΠ
1755 Dict. Arts & Sci. at 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.
1855 H. M. Noad Man. Electr. (ed. 4) I. ii. 33 A pair of pincers..for holding a slender silver or glass wire.
1879 Proc. Royal Soc. 30 426 The untwisting of the vertical glass wire was observed by the reflection of a ray of light..by a mirror rigidly attached to the wire at its lower extremity.
1961 Art Educ. 14 vii. 6/1 He had suspended glistening white plaster spheres on nylon wires.
1995 Sci. News 16 Sept. 183/1 Because they conduct electricity well, the [carbon] nanotubes sparked the interest of researchers who wanted to grow them into long wires.
19. Criminals' slang. A pickpocket. Now rare.Apparently with reference to the pickpocket's practice of using a piece of wire to extract articles from the pockets of victims.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > pickpocket or cutpurse > [noun] > pickpocket
fig-boyc1555
foister1585
foist1591
pickpocket1591
bung1600
diver1608
pocket-picker1622
pocketeerc1626
bung-nipper1659
file1673
filer1674
shark1707
hoister1708
knuckle1781
knuckler1801
buzzgloak1819
cly-faker1819
fingersmith1819
knuck1819
fogle hunter1821
buzzman1832
nobbler1839
wire1851
gonoph1853
wirer1857
dip1859
moll-tooler1859
buzzer1862
hook1863
snotter1864
tool1865
pocket-cutter1885
dipper1889
pogue-hunter1896
pick1902
finger1925
whizz1925
whizzer1925
prat diggera1931
whizz-boy1931
whizz-man1932
reefer1935
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 410/2 A ‘wire’, that is, a picker of ladies' pockets.
1862 Cornhill Mag. Nov. 644 The boy has now become a single-handed street wire.
1887 G. W. Walling Recoll. N.Y. Chief of Police xvi. 218 The fourth pickpocket, called ‘the wire’, takes the watch or the pocket-book.
1921 Chambers's 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.
2003 USA Today (Nexis) 17 June 6 b The best pickpockets, known as ‘the cannon’ or ‘the wire’, are good enough to go it alone. But most pickpockets work in crews of three or four people.
20. A wire-haired terrier.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > terrier > [noun] > fox-terrier
fox-terrier1823
wire hair1884
wire1892
foxie1906
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > terrier > [noun] > other types of
Irish terrier1798
Dandie Dinmont1851
Welsh terrier1857
Bedlington1867
Jack Russell1878
Airedale1880
Clydesdale1887
Border terrier1894
Manchester terrier1894
Sealyham1894
schnauzer1899
pinscher1906
Cairn terrier1910
Kerry blue terrier1922
Lakeland terrier1928
wheaten1943
Sydney silky1945
Manchester1971
Norfolk1971
wire1975
1892 Brit. Fancier 19 Feb. 79/2 Mr. F. H. Field judged the Wires.
1938 Times 1 Jan. 1/6 (advt.) Beautiful Corgis,..Wires, Dachshunds, [etc.].
1975 Country Life 6 Feb. (Advt. Suppl.) 27/1 Puppies for sale..Long Haired Wires.
2002 D. M. Warren Small Animal Care & Managem. (ed. 2) vii. 82 It is believed that the Wire was developed from the old rough-coated black and tan working terriers.

Phrases

P1. to be (all) on wires: to be in a state of nervous excitement or anxiety; to be tense or on edge. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > excitement > nervous excitement > be in state of nervous excitement [verb (intransitive)]
to take ona1450
seethe1609
trepidate1623
to take on oneself1632
flutter1668
pother1715
to be upon the nettle (also in a nettle)1723
to be nerve all over1778
to be all nerve1819
to be (all) on wires1824
to break up1825
to carry on1828
to be on (occasionally upon or on the) edge1872
faff1874
to have kittens1900
flap1910
to be in, get in(to), a flap1939
to go sparec1942
to keep (also blow, lose) one's cool1964
faffle1965
to get one's knickers in a twist1971
to have a canary1971
to wet one's pants1979
tweak1981
1824 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 262/2 He is on wires—his rage is expressed by trembling, and his feeling by the fidgets.
1853 Dublin Univ. Mag. Jan. 28/2 ‘I knew you would be on wires as soon as Alphonsine entered’, exclaimed my companion.
1892 A. Conan Doyle Lot. No. 249 in Harper's Mag. Sept. 531/1 Your nerves are all in a jangle. You must drop these little midnight games with mummies, or you'll be going off your chump. You're all on wires now.
1915 Times 27 Aug. 11/5 You have heard people say that they are ‘all on wires’ after a tiresome hard day's house cleaning or washing.
P2. Australian slang. the straight wire: the honest truth; also used without article as an exclamation emphasizing the truth of an assertion. Now rare.
ΚΠ
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.
1909 A. Wright Rogue's Luck 70 ‘Now, no kid, Harry,’ said Ned anxiously. ‘Straight wire, did you beat him?’
1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger xlii. 394 ‘Will you?’ said Humphrey... ‘Straight wire, I will.’
1955 N. Pulliam I traveled Lonely Land 237 Why I'd even make it for the Olympics..and that's the straight wire.
P3. slang. to give (or get) the (also a) wire: to give or get a private warning or message.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > danger > warning of imminent danger or evil > warn (a person) of imminent danger or evil [verb (transitive)]
warnc1000
forewarnc1330
monisha1382
premonisha1530
awarn1590
preadmonish1632
prewarna1637
preadvise1651
alarm1663
advertise1825
to give (or get) the (also a) wire1897
1897 Worker (Sydney) 11 Sept. 1/1 The ‘bloke’ gives him a ‘wire’ that ‘the tree’ is coming down.
1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 307 Wire, to give the, to give a secret warning.
1930 E. H. Lavine Third Degree xvi. 210 The real thieves get ‘a wire’, and play poker.
1936 ‘J. Curtis’ Gilt Kid vi. 60 He'd been straight with her and had given her the wire right in the beginning.
1972 R. Busby Reasonable Man xviii. 161 He gave me the wire that there was a big one coming off.
2004 O. McCafferty in Singular (Male) Voices 48 You should have told me da..you should have give me the wire about all this y'know.
P4. to pull one's wire: see to pull one's (or the) pud (also pudding, wire, etc.) at pull v. Phrases 13.

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive.
(a) With the sense ‘made of wire or wirework’.
wire basket n.
ΚΠ
1792 Bee 3 Oct. 177 Spread fresh leaves into the wire basket; and let it down gently over the worms.
1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery vii. 196 A wire basket..is convenient for frying parsley and other herbs.
2003 Holiday Which? Summer 135/1 Mopeds wobbling along..with a cargo of pigs in wire baskets on the back.
wire blind n.
ΚΠ
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §560 With wire blinds, the heat and great part of the light might be excluded.
1922 ‘K. Mansfield’ Garden Party 58 It's not the scene, it's not the setting for..three stools, three desks, three inkpots and a wire blind.
1998 Leicester Mercury (Nexis) 11 Nov. 10 By 1867 he had increased his assistants to five and installed a new frontage with his name in gold letters on elaborate wire blinds.
† wire bolter n. [see bolter n.1] Obsolete
ΚΠ
1795 G. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Mid-Lothian (new ed.) vii. 96 The flour is dressed through a wire boulter 7½ feet long.
1801 Farmer's Mag. Apr. 216 The flour mill..had received a most valuable addition of a wire boulter.
wire bow n.
ΚΠ
OE Riddle 14 3 Nu mec [sc. a horn] wlonc þeceð geong hagostealdmon golde ond sylfore, woum wirbogum.
1801 E. Darwin Zoonomia (ed. 3) III. 67 If it was soft or fragile stone, the retraction of the wire-bow might divide it at every trial.
1898 Sci. Amer. 9 Dec. 375/2 A rectangular frame of wood..provided with several wooden or wire bows arising therefrom.
2001 Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times Free Press (Nexis) 3 June a11 They found that the wire bow was quite efficient in storing and releasing energy.
wire cable n.
ΚΠ
1837 W. Leithead Electricity x. 117 The reader will perfectly understand its construction, when informed that it is a wire cable.
1860 R. Hunt Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 5) II. 113 The Atlantic telegraph cable..is a single wire cable.
1999 Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers 89 247/1 One early method for monitoring sandbar morphology consisted of placing thin wire cables..vertically into sandbars.
wire cage n.
ΚΠ
?1578 W. Patten Let. Entertainm. Killingwoorth 11 Upon the first payr of Posts wear set, too cumly square wyre Cages, each a three foot long, too foot wide & hy.
1772 T. Simpson Compl. Vermin-killer 5 Let the wire-maker make a wire cage.
2006 Daily Tel. 6 July 4/3 For 23 hours a day they will be in total lockdown in a wire cage, bare but for a seat-less lavatory and a sheet-less bed.
wire cloth n.
ΚΠ
1746 S. Simpson Agreeable Historian I. 51 A Mould is a square Sieve about an Inch deep, bottom'd with Brass-wire-cloth.]
1767 J. Hanway Lett. Importance Rising Generation II. xliii. 312 There is a person at Manchester who has obtained a patent for a wire cloth bolting machine.
1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 224/2 This [mould] consists of a framework of fine wirecloth with a ‘deckle’ or movable frame of wood all round it.
1992 M. Baren How it all Began 32/2 The art of paper-making..still consisted of the essential processes of reducing rags to fibre by boiling, bleaching the resultant pulp, then depositing it on wire cloth while suspended in water.
wire fence n.
ΚΠ
1772 W. Chambers Diss. Oriental Gardening 21 They make use of strong wire fences, painted green.
1832 W. 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.
1906 Condor 8 23 The bird was on a wire fence near Cat Creek.
2005 New Yorker 4 July 73/2 I take a taxi straight to the bay, passing billboards and wire fences.
wire fencing n.
ΚΠ
1834 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (new ed.) i. 169 There is only one main walk through the centre of the grounds to display these monuments, yet numbers of them..are surrounded by shrubs and flowers enclosed in wire fencing.
1923 School Rev. 31 617 Approximately $1,350 for wire fencing for the field.
1998 A. Taylor Suffocating Night ii. 10 The hedgerow..gave way to wire fencing, topped with barbed wire.
wire gauze n.
ΚΠ
1777 Whole Proc. King's Comm. Peace (City of London & County of Middlesex) ii. 60/2 Mary Collins was indicted for stealing..one wire gauze cap, value 6d.
1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics 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.
1999 Herald (Karachi) May 111/1 The roshandaan was the old-fashioned type, wire gauze outside and sliding panels inside.
wire grate n.
ΚΠ
1648 N. Ward Mercurius Anti-mechanicus 46 Me thinks the sweet birds Canto's are too good To be confined to Wire-grates from the Wood.
1696 tr. S. Barbe French Perfumer 95 At the top of the Trunk within about half a foot, there is a wooden or wire Grate to hold what you design to Perfume.
1819 A. Rees Cycl. XXXVIII Wire-Grates,..contrivances formed of fine wire-work, and used for keeping various kinds of large insects out of vineries,..and such places.
2007 Boston Globe (Nexis) 14 Oct. (Mag.) 26 The Leemings use special firebricks, pulled into the pit on a wire grate.
wire guard n.
ΚΠ
1808 T. Williamson Compl. Angler's Vade-mecum 145 Experience has fully convinced me, that wire-guards are very exceptionable.
1919 Auk 36 144 A nest built on the wire guard to an open fireplace.
1997 J. Wilson Coarse Fishing Method Man. (1998) 17/1 ABU's Atom Giller..is most effectively protected from fouling weed by two long wire guards while the treble fits neatly against the spoon out of harm's way.
wire handle n.
ΚΠ
1685 London Gaz. No. 2017/8 Two Silver hilted Swords, one with a single Shell Cuttoe Hilt cut in the Shell with a silver Gilt Wire Handle.
1787 G. Adams Ess. Microscope 71 The wicks..are fixed on a brass collar with a wire handle, by means of which they are raised or depressed at pleasure.
1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) xi. 499/5 (heading) This is a thin roller on a long wire handle for painting behind radiators and pipes.
wire hanger n.
ΚΠ
1896 Waterloo (Iowa) Daily Courier 16 Jan. 6/4 (caption) Wire hanger for orchid basket.
1944 Sci. News Let. 46 351/1 Clothes hanger, adjustable for wide-shouldered garments, resembles the ordinary wire hanger but has..a U-shaped wire extension.
2003 M. Ali Brick Lane xiv. 255 Cloth draped on wire hangers in windows.
wire lattice n.
ΚΠ
1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. O2 Lay them on a wire Lattice till they are cold.
1860 ‘G. Eliot’ Mill on Floss III. iv. 44 A sudden beam of sunshine, falling through the wire lattice across the worm-eaten shelves.
2006 Dominion Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 29 Dec. 6 The fence was ugly but effective, a 2.2-metre-high wire lattice with overhanging ‘hat’ and wire skirt dug into the ground to block burrowers.
wire mattress n.
ΚΠ
1870 Decatur (Illinois) Daily Republican 29 Sept. 4/3 No one thing at the fair has interested us more than the examination of the woven wire mattress—a perfect spring bed without springs.
1958 Nursing (St. John Ambulance Assoc.) iii. 37 Wooden fracture boards are put over the wire mattress about 1 inch apart and extending from the foot to the head of the bed.
1994 G. Lehmann Spring Forest 3 Our children found potatoes sprouting on the wire mattress of a large iron bed.
wire mesh n.
ΚΠ
1780 J. Keys Pract. Bee-master Index 378 Separation, by a board with a wire mesh.
1888 Times 24 Oct. 3/5 This [roofing] consisted of a close wire mesh.
1944 Living off Land: Man. Bushcraft v. 109 Tanks..are best dealt with by screening all openings with a protective wire mesh.
2008 Bath Chron. (Nexis) 3 Jan. 78 Being a source of public water supply to Bath, the reservoir is securely confined behind a wire mesh fence.
wire net n.
ΚΠ
?1578 W. Patten Let. Entertainm. Killingwoorth 69 Which, with a wyre net..eeuen & tight waz al ouer strained.
1742 Hist. Stage 82 Vulcan plotting, and catching them in a Wire net.
2004 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) June 218/2 We hired uniformed State Troopers to drop a wire net on any breaks of booze-addled Crazies who got out of control.
wire netting n.
ΚΠ
1769 De Re Rustica I. xxxii. 289 An air-hole..should be..covered with a very fine wire netting.
1854 Poultry Chron. 1 468 Ordinary Wire Netting, from 2½d. per yard, 2 feet wide.
2006 Countryman Dec. 68/2 Dave, Ted and Walt busy themselves putting wire netting round the stack to prevent rats escaping.
wire network n.
ΚΠ
1763 Mem. Chevalier Pierpoint I. vi. 67 The countess's books were contained in four large cases of mahogony. They had gilt wire net-work before them.]
1795 J. Scott U.S. Gazetteer at Delaware Around the lantern..is a strong wire network, in order to prevent birds from breaking the glass at night.
1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 478/2 Wire net-work formerly employed for screens.
1914 Proc. Royal Soc. 90 316 It seems open to question whether merely encasing a building in a wire network will always protect it from a disruptive discharge.
2007 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 9 May Telecom has underinvested in the wire network.
wire riddle n.
ΚΠ
1682 S. Gilbert Florists Vade-mecum 8 Fill them up with good skreened earth or such as hath been sifted through a Wire Riddle.
1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 281 A barley wire-riddle answers for beans.
1994 Scotsman (Nexis) 31 Dec. 13 Up they went to the shaking wire riddles where the small ones [sc. potatoes] slipped through while the bigger ones went up another set of rollers into bags.
wire rigging n.
ΚΠ
1841 B. Hall Patchwork II. xvi. 227 I feel convinced that they will ere long succeed, to introduce iron-wire rigging, which is stronger and better than chain.]
1843 Penny Mag. 19 Aug. 324/1 Twenty government vessels have been fitted with the wire-rigging.
1907 Geogr. Jrnl. 29 486 The old hempen rigging was replaced by wire rigging.
2007 Seattle Times (Nexis) 24 Oct. b1 Companies nearby were making wire rigging, servicing propellers, hauling logs, fashioning giant gears.
wire rope n.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > other manufactured or derived materials > [noun] > rope or cord > wire rope
wire rope1832
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > metal in specific state or form > [noun] > wire > wire rope
wire rope1832
society > occupation and work > equipment > tool > types of tools generally > [noun] > rope, string, cord, etc.
stringa900
linea1000
lacec1230
cordc1305
whipcord?a1500
thumb-rope1601
thumb-band1639
chord1645
spun-yarn1685
hairline1731
tie-tie1774
rope1841
wire rope2001
1832 C. E. W. Cushing Lett. Descriptive Public Monuments I. xxi. 255 The wire is very small, but a large number of strands are fastened together, and formed into solid wire ropes an inch and a half thick, five on each side.
1923 Geogr. Jrnl. 62 201 There is a big timber-yard and an aerial wire-rope line extending miles across country.
2001 Tractor & Machinery Jan. 5/1 Much longer wire ropes are often called for in difficult situations.
wire sieve n.
ΚΠ
1638 Gorhambury Acct. Bk. in L. M. Munby Early Stuart Househ. Accts. Herts. Rec. (1986) 175 2 wire sives.
1714 E. Tenison in Philos. Trans. 1713 (Royal Soc.) 28 92 A Wire Sieve (such as is used to separate Cockle from Corn).
1889 Proc. Royal Soc. 45 347 For analysis the material was passed through a wire sieve.
1999 Waitrose Food Illustr. July 118/4 Push the ricotta through a mouli or a wire sieve into a large bowl.
wire spring n.
ΚΠ
1774 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 63 237 The iron bell-wire in both the parlours and the hall was reduced to smoke and entirely dissipated, excepting..the wire springs contiguous to the bell.
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §665 Wire Springs for stuffing are nothing more than spiral coils of wire.
2000 P. Vincent Mountain Bike Maintenance 78 Seatposts of the telescoping kind..contain..wire springs, which provide the suspension.
wire staple n.
ΚΠ
1667 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 440 A long Wire-staple.
1895 Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 540/2 Patent Staple Presses (For Fastening Papers &c.)..Wire Staples. Size ¼ inch, per 1000 0/6.
2004 Tool & Machinery Catal. 2005 (Axminster Power Tool Centre Ltd.) ix. 34/2 The HT30 takes three sizes of wire staple.
wire string n.
ΚΠ
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §171 Which Strings we call False, being bigger in one Place than in another; And therefore Wire-strings are neuer False.
a1712 W. King tr. P. de la Croix Persian & Turkish Tales (1714) I. 446 A Tambour. (A Sort of Lute, with a long Neck, and six Wire Strings).
1887 Sci. Amer. 19 Feb. 121/1 The zither..having 24 wire strings.
2007 Sunday Times (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 1 July 15 Metallic dome lights dangle from wire strings.
wire trap n.
ΚΠ
1764 Court & City Medley 31 A Wire Trap, to catch a Rat in.
1844 J. C. Neal Peter Ploddy 178 To be ketched at home is little better than bein' a mouse in a wire-trap.
2008 Southern Reporter (Nexis) 17 Jan. Advocates for Animals and the League Against Cruel Sports supporters..lobbied the public in Galashiels to support their push to outlaw the wire traps.
wire trolley n.
ΚΠ
1944 Jrnl. Mammalogy 25 152 We..arranged a lead on a wire trolley so that the animal could have considerable freedom of movement without becoming entangled.
1976 Southern Evening 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.
2007 Leicester Mercury (Nexis) 27 Oct. 14 Any fruit that has fallen off the display area or dropped through the wire trolleys and baskets is cleared away as soon as possible.
wire web n.
ΚΠ
1820 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 1 83 Turning the rollers of the wire web, by which operation the lime, &c. will be cast off into a receiver at the end of the vessel.
1911 A. Adams Wells Brothers (ed. 2) vii. 109 In fastening the gate in the centre short ropes were used, and the wire web drawn taut to the tension of a pliable fence.
2003 A. Luque & S. Hegedus Handbk. Photovoltaic Sci. & Engineering (2005) 224 The silicon column on the holder is pushed against the moving wire web and sliced into hundreds of wafers.
wire whip n.
ΚΠ
?c1588 Disc. Troubles in E. A. Bond Russia at Close of 16th Cent. (1856) App. iii. 316 He was hanged by both his handes tyed behind him, and waightes to his feet, and had 24 lashes with a wyer whippe.
a1627 H. Shirley Martyr'd Souldier (1638) iii. ii. sig. E3 Wyer-whips shall drive you.
1741 C. Povey Virgin in Eden Introd. sig. A2 No Pennances are laid to abstain from Meats, nor to scourge our Bodies with wire Whips.
1998 N. Lawson How to Eat (1999) 19 For this, I always use my free-standing mixer with the wire whip attached, but an electric beater or balloon whisk will do.
(b) With the sense ‘relating to or concerned with the manufacture of wire’.
wire manufactory n.
ΚΠ
1771 G. Culley Jrnl. 21 June in M. Culley & G. Culley Trav. Jrnls. & Lett. (2002) 66 A wire manufactory.
1884 Times 29 Jan. 6/5 The wire manufactory of Mr William Dainslith, at Halebank, Widnes, has been completely destroyed.
2005 Apollo (Nexis) 1 Sept. 46 Establishing a substantial wire manufactory represented a significant undertaking for an individual who was already operating a thriving goldsmiths' shop.
wire manufacture n.
ΚΠ
1784 Parl. Reg. Ireland III. i. 210 You have encouraged your iron and steel wire manufacture, by laying a new duty on the foreign imported.]
1798 C. Cruttwell New Universal Gazetteer I. at Dedham A town of the United States of America..where a wire manufacture has been established.
1851 Times 1 Sept. 3/5 The wire manufacture, which a short time ago was flourishing, is labouring under temporary depression.
2006 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 26 Oct. 24 Eurowire is moving out of just wire manufacture to make solid metal trays, metal kitchen tables and sinks.
wire manufacturer n.
ΚΠ
1787 Parl. Reg. Ireland VII. Index Petitions, Of George Cuppaidge, wire manufacturer.
1818 Mathews's Ann. Bristol Directory (ed. 20) 67 Fowler Francis Martin Wire manufacturer.
2008 Brighouse Echo (Nexis) 24 Jan. Lister wire manufacturers at Brooksmouth Mills..were sent home on Monday after workers had managed to move machinery away from flooded areas.
wire mill n.
ΚΠ
a1705 J. Ray Itineraries in Select Remains (1760) 252 We went..to Tintern Abbey, where we saw the Wire-Mills.
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 346 Three of these machines..are, in general, employed in a wire-mill.
2008 Evening News (Edinburgh) (Nexis) 24 Jan. 20 Robert followed Minnie's father into the wire mill—at one stage making and fitting huge bombproof nets that covered parts of Buckingham Palace.
(c) In sense ‘supported or running on wires’.
wire railway n.
ΚΠ
1869 St. Joseph (Mich.) Herald 17 July (headline) Wire Railways.
1890 W. 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.
1906 Times 10 Apr. 9/5 A wire railway carries the tourist to within a very short distance of the crater.
wire tramway n.
ΚΠ
1869 St. Joseph (Mich.) Herald 17 July The wire tramway provides a simple and cheap substitute for a line of rails.
1895 J. D. Hague Diary in Huntington Libr. Q. (1981) 44 182 Transportation by wire tramway disposes of many difficulties formerly experienced.
1987 W. H. Beezley Judas at Jockey Club (1989) 40 Donald Stewart..spent several days on Popo examining the possibility of constructing a wire tramway from the base to the rim, and down into the crater of the mountain.
b. Parasynthetic and instrumental, as wire-bound, wire-caged, wire-covered, wire-framed, wire-hung, wire-mended, wire-rimmed, wire-sewn, etc., adjs.
ΚΠ
c1824 L. Hunt World of Bks., My Bks. (1899) 20 With books all in Museum order, especially wire-safed.
1832 S. Waring Minstrelsy of Woods 121 A pair of bullfinches had long lived together in captivity, and appeared to..sojourn happily in their little wire-bound dwelling.
1856 ‘The Druid’ Post & Paddock ii. 38 That springy wire-hung action, which..distinguishes the stock of the great ‘Rawcliffe Horse’.
1861 All Year Round 6 Apr. 31/2 Each table has a little wire-covered cage in one corner.
1871 G. MacDonald Manchester Poem in Roadside Poems xiv. 17 The dark bird..which hangs wire-caged.
1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 156 Wire sewn, books sewn with wire instead of thread.
1891 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 318/1 A padlock with a wire-mended chain.
1907 H. Wyndham Flare of Footlights vi Wire-guarded gas brackets.
1910 Daily Chron. 11 Mar. 6/4 Then why could not the coverts be wire-netted from March to October?
1971 S. Hill Strange Meeting i. 28 The sound of the man sleeping above him in the wire-framed bunk.
1998 Making Music Apr. 13/3 Two strings, wire-covered cat-gut.
2004 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Dec. 372/1 He's wearing wire-rimmed eyeglasses.
c. Objective with agent nouns (applied to persons or to implements) and verbal nouns, as wire clipper (usually in plural), wire-monger, wire-nippers, wire-weaver, wire-weaving, etc.
ΚΠ
1479 in H. Stewart Worshipful Company 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.
1699 E. Hatton Comes commercii iv. 266 Girdlers, Point-makers, Pursers, Glovers, Joiners, Painters, Card-makers, Wire-mongers [etc.].
?1774 New Compl. Guide City of London (ed. 14) 202/2 Butler and Waite, wire weavers, Saffron street.
1794 E. Donovan Instr. collecting & preserving Subjects Nat. Hist. 5 Large specimens will require a small scoop; a pair of nippers, to assist in taking out the entrails; wire clippers, small awls [etc.].
1806 B. M'Mahon Amer. Gardener's Cal. 437 For this purpose make use of a small pair of wire nippers, the points of which are flattened, and bound round with silk or thread.
1884 Times 20 Oct. 11/4 The wire-weaving branch is dull, and there is not much doing in netting.
1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap iii. 109 That fresh bunch of campers..had a pair of wire clippers in the whip socket.
1988 Med. Anthropol. Q. 2 208 Men employed by the same manufacturer but in a different process, wire-weaving, reach ‘the full duration of human life’.
2007 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 1 Feb. f3/4 Developed..in collaboration with a wire weaver from one of Cape Town's poorest townships, the steel wire tables and stools unite contemporary design with African handicraft.
C2.
a.
wire act n. an acrobatic act performed on a tightrope or high wire.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > rope-walking or dancing
rope-dancing1625
rope-walking1625
funambuling1650
funambulation1707
rope dance1727
wire-dancing1755
tightrope dancing1800
funambulism1801
wire-walking1804
wire act1891
wirework1899
slacklining1999
1891 N.Y. Times 22 Sept. 19/4 The programme will include..Granto and Maud in an eccentric wire act.
1912 C. Mackenzie Carnival xi. 136 They did not object to interminable wire-acts, and put up with divination feats of the most exhausting dullness.
2007 Tulsa (Oklahoma) World (Nexis) 3 Dec. It sounds a bit like a circus coming to town: a wire act, a collection of people with unusual physical qualities.
wire bar n. Manufacturing Technology a bar of copper cast into a suitable form for the manufacture of wire.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > base metal > [noun] > copper > plate or bar of copper
rosette1609
rose cake1670
wire bar1858
tile1868
1858 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 3 Dec. 32/2 The refined copper is cast into ingots, tiles, or wire bars, according to the demand.
1950 Introd. Aluminium & its Alloys (Aluminium Federation) 22 The metal is..cast into wire bars, i.e. long, square-section billets in lengths up to 10 ft., and these are then hot rolled between grooved rolls.
2006 Industr. Waste Treatm. Handbk. (Woodard & Curran Inc.) (ed. 2) x. 422 The raw materials for the copper forming industry are copper bars, square cross-section wire bars, [etc.].
wire bed n. (a) a bed fitted with a wire spring base or mattress; (b) Papermaking = sense 16.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > bed > types of bed > [noun] > other types of bed
childbed1568
plank bed1584
table bed1633
earth-bed1637
pigeon-hole bed1685
box-bed1693
barbecue1697
plaid bedc1710
bed of state1713
pallet1839
high post1842
rocker1854
wire bed1882
lit bateau1895
string cot1895
sleigh bed1902
orthopaedic bed1943
high-low bed1956
futon1959
bateau lit1983
society > occupation and work > equipment > paper-making equipment > [noun] > wire bed
web1807
wire1825
wire bed1962
1853 W. A. Alcott Lect. Life & Health ix. 434 It is on this account, more than any other, that I prefer the elastic wire bed, so lately come into fashion.]
1882 W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) II. 296 Wire-beds—829 no. 10th st.
1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper iv. 38 The wire bed is kept perfectly level while it oscillates to bring about the interlacing of fibres in the pulp.
2007 Sunday Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 16 Dec. 20 Sheds on big farms are largely unchanged from the days of windswept corrugated iron, shared rooms and threadbare mattresses on wire beds.
† wire-bell n. Obsolete a metal bar or rod used to produce a bell-like sound when struck.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > percussion instrument > bell > [noun] > other bells
handbell1494
pull-bell1552
morris bell1560
wire-bell1668
joy-bells1808
sleigh-bell1849
gong1864
gong-bell1864
fairy bells1888
tin-pot1895
1668 Tintinnalogia 3 Let him learn on some Instrument, or Wyer-Bells, to know a Third, Fifth, and Eighth, which are the principal Concords.
wire birch n. North American a small birch of eastern North America, Betula populifolia, with light-coloured bark.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > tree or shrub groups > birch and allies > [noun]
bircha700
birch-tree1530
weeping birch1606
Our Lady's tree1608
black birch1674
sugar-birch1751
white birch1766
red birch1774
yellow birch1774
paper birch1791
canoe birch1810
mountain mahogany1810
old field birch1810
mahogany birch1813
towai1845
river birch1846
kamahi1867
silver birch1884
wire birch1899
1899 R. R. McLeod In Acadian Land 91 Slender wire-birches, clad in gray and green, stand guard over those woodland gems [sc. lady's-slippers], that the sun shall not smite them.
1956 T. H. Raddall Wings of Night 12 Then came the long reach of scrub woods, wire birch and poplar mostly, with blossoming clumps of Indian pear, like patches of snow on the slopes.
1974 J. Dowell Look-off Bear p. viii Beyond our grove of pines there were mixed growths of wire-birch, swamp willow, [etc.].
wirebird n. a small plover, Charadrius sanctaehelenae, found only on the dry grassland of St Helena in the South Atlantic.
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the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > [noun] > family Charadriidae > genus Charadrius > member of (miscellaneous)
ring plover1797
wirebird1816
Kentish plover1828
piping plover1828
mountain plover1858
1816 A. Beatson Tracts Relative Island St. Helena p. xvii It is called the ‘Wire-Bird’; probably from its very long legs, resembling wires, which enable it to run with uncommon swiftness.
1873 J. E. Harting in Ibis 3 260 The St.-Helena bird, popularly known in the island as the ‘Wire-bird’.
1976 News Jrnl. (Mansfield, Ohio) 18 Jan. 7 f/4 A Wire Bird for ornithology is shown on the 12p stamp.
2001 Jrnl. Appl. Ecol. 38 772/2 The wirebird's survival is probably a result of its dependence on open habitats.
wire bond n. Manufacturing Technology a wire forming or reinforcing a bond between two objects; (Electronics) a very short, fine wire forming an interconnection between two components of a microcircuit, such as between a microchip and a pad (pad n.2 22).
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1894 U.S. Patent 517,576 2/1 In my floor patent above referred to I have set forth wire bonds between adjacent tension rods.
1966 Microelectronics & Reliability 5 233/1 Even a relatively weak aluminium wire bond would withstand higher centrifugal forces than those which can normally be employed.
1993 F. W. Kear Hybrid Assemblies & Multichip Modules vii. 137 (caption) Thick-film circuit mounted in a molded housing and connected to terminal pins through wire bond connectors.
2003 E. Bogatin Signal Integrity vi. 168 A common practice in high-powered chips is double bonding, that is, using two wire bonds.
wire bonding n. Manufacturing Technology the practice of using wire bonds; wire bonds collectively.
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1925 Brit. Patent 240,018 1/1 A wire working machine of the type which produces wire bonding ties.
1963 Solid-state Electronics 6 549/2 Some of the advanced wire bonding utilized in integrated circuitry.
2003 G. Schuster in D. Jansen et al. Electronic Design Automation Handbk. xxiii. 555/1 The electrical connection technique most frequently used is wire bonding.
† wire bridge n. Obsolete (a) a suspension bridge supported by wires; (b) Electronics a kind of bridge circuit in which two of the resistors are formed by a wire (cf. Wheatstone bridge n. at Wheatstone n. a).
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > other means of passage or access > [noun] > bridge > suspension bridge
suspended bridge1796
hanging bridge1815
wire bridge1816
chain-bridge1818
bridge of suspension1821
suspension-bridge1821
jhula1830
tension-bridge1877
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > resistance > [noun] > instrument used in measuring > in form of bridge
bridge1865
Wheatstone bridge1865
wire bridge1880
post-office bridge1890
post office box1894
Kelvin double bridge1896
Maxwell bridge1907
1816 Portfolio (Philadelphia) June 521 The wire bridge near Philadelphia..is supported by six wires each 3–8ths of an inch in diameter.
1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 334/1 Another wire bridge..was built in 1817, across the Tweed.
1880 Proc. Physical Soc. 4 193 With the view of testing the truth of this explanation, I made a series of experiments, using a wire bridge and various small resistances.
wire brush n. a brush with wire bristles; spec. (a) one with stiff wire bristles used esp. for cleaning and scouring; (b) a slender brush with long flexible bristles of fine wire used for playing percussion instruments such as drums or cymbals (cf. brush n.2 1b).
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > scouring, scrubbing, or rubbing > [noun] > implement for scouring or scrubbing > brush
rubbing brush1530
hog1669
scrub-broom1675
scrubbing-brush1681
wire brush1686
scrub1687
scrubber1911
toilet brush1917
bog brush1982
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > percussion instrument > drum > [noun] > drumstick
sticka1398
tabor-stick1486
drumstick1589
tapskin1605
drum stave1832
potato masher1835
baguette1876
wire brush1927
brush1955
1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. iii. 123 Which two colours they break with a wire brush, much after the manner they doe when they marble paper.
1735 J. Barrow Dict. Polygraphicum I. at Gilding The thing to be gilded must first be scrubb'd with a wire brush and a little fair water.
1878 L. Jewitt Ceramic Art I. 98 A round dish of the ‘combed ware’, described by Plot, is shown... Some of the examples..are exceedingly delicate..others..have been ‘combed’ with a coarse comb or wire brush.
1927 Melody Maker Apr. 389/1 In quiet passages, the wire brush on a Chinese cymbal gives a very pleasing effect.
1974 A. Ross Bradford Business 76 Even the short heavy bolts had been rubbed up with a wire brush.
2007 N.Y. Times 20 May (T: Style Mag.) 161/1 There is the guacharaca (a notched piece of wood stroked with a wire brush) that the indigenous people invented long before they were subdued..by the Spanish.
wire brush v. (transitive) to brush or clean with a wire brush.
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > scouring, scrubbing, or rubbing > scour, scrub, or rub [verb (transitive)] > with a wire brush
wire brusha1935
a1935 T. 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.
2001 Pract. Fishkeeping Feb. 22/3 It is essential to wire brush the surface to remove as much as possible of the old sealant and any algae present.
wire-brushed adj. that has been brushed or cleaned using a wire brush.
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > scouring, scrubbing, or rubbing > [adjective] > scoured or scrubbed > with a wire brush
wire-brushed1955
1955 Archit. Rev. 117 68 Construction: reinforced concrete frame with mainly brick walls, but certain panels of wire-brushed concrete.
1978 Country Life 28 Dec. 2212/1 The furniture in wire-brushed carved oak.
2008 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 13 Jan. The modestly scaled lobby, with its elegantly restrained walls of wire-brushed travertine.
wire-brushing n. the action or practice of brushing or cleaning using a wire brush.
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the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > scouring, scrubbing, or rubbing > [noun] > with a wire brush
wire-brushing1906
1906 Times 9 Jan. 3/3 The metal thoroughly exposed by scraping and wire brushing.
1978 E. Gundrey Simple Plumbing 22 Rust removal involves wire-brushing.
2002 Stationary Engine Mag. July 28/2 The engine was painted with a dull pink paint but, on wire-brushing, a deep red paint was visible.
† wire candle n. Obsolete (perhaps) a candle supported or stiffened with wire.
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the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > supported by wire
wire candle1416
1416–19 in H. E. Salter Churchwardens' Accts. St. Michael's Oxf. (1933) 14 Wyrecandel ante crucem ad lux fulgebit.
1446 Acct. in Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archæol. Jrnl. (1902) 8 56 (MED) For ij li. wyr kandyl at the same tyme, iij d.
wire cartridge n. Shooting (now rare) a shotgun cartridge formed of wire mesh designed to control the dispersal of the pellets in order to give greater range.
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the world > food and drink > hunting > shooting > shooting equipment > [noun] > shot-gun or fowling-piece > cartridge
wire cartridge1829
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > ammunition for firearms > [noun] > cartridge > type of cartridge
ball cartridge1768
blank-cartridge1826
wire cartridge1829
Schultze cartridge1885
centre-fire1889
blank1896
1829 Let. 3 Mar. in Sporting Mag. Apr. 409/2 I..cordially agree in his observations respecting the danger of Eley's patent wire cartridges.
1858 in W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 14 (advt.) 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.
1956 C. Willock Death at Flight xv. 202 ‘Wire cartridges,’ he said. ‘Punt-gunners use these to get greater range.’
wire communication n. (a) a connection made with wire (now rare); (b) transmission of information by means of a system which relies on wires or cables (in early use esp. a telegraph system); (also) a communication delivered in this way.
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1748 B. Franklin Let. in Exper. & Observ. Electr. (1751) 28 When the spark is taken through a quire of paper..by means of a wire communication, it makes a fair hole through every sheet.
1871 Times 9 Sept. 4/4 The telegraph poles here are blown down, by which wire communication with the neighbouring islands is interrupted.
1901 Consular Rep. (U.S. Bureau Manuf.) Nov. 450 [The company] is constructing a third cable,..the object being to offer a more direct wire communication between Europe and India and Australia.
1917 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 5 May 3/3 Freight Agent Thomas McDonald to-day received a wire communication.
1949 Congress. Rec. 8 Apr. 4184/2 A bill..to make unlawful the possession of wire-tapping equipment with intent to use such equipment for the unlawful interception of wire communications.
2002 Times (Nexis) 10 July (Business section) 23 Laws for prosecuting anyone who uses the US Postal Service or a ‘wire communication’ device, such as the telephone, e-mail, or the internet, to help perpetrate a fraud.
wire-cut n. = wire-cut brick n.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > brick > [noun] > brick made in specific way
semi-brick1601
place brick1621
clinker1659
rubbed brick1663
rubber1744
marl1812
bat1816
burr1823
wire-cut brick1839
place1843
wire-cut1910
rug brick1914
texture brick1940
1910 Encycl. Brit. IV. 519/2 In all cases bricks thus made are known as ‘wire-cuts’.
2001 R.C. de Vekey in J. M. Illston & P. L. J. Domone Construction Materials (ed. 3) v. xxx. 286/ Most extruded wirecuts and stiff plastic bricks are now fired in such kilns which are continuous in operation.
wire-cut brick n. a brick manufactured by means of a mechanized process in which a long bar of clay is extruded through a die and cut into bricks using wire.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > brick > [noun] > brick made in specific way
semi-brick1601
place brick1621
clinker1659
rubbed brick1663
rubber1744
marl1812
bat1816
burr1823
wire-cut brick1839
place1843
wire-cut1910
rug brick1914
texture brick1940
1839 Mechanics' Mag. 31 63/1 The defect in the wire-cut bricks, is, that the ends are rough and uneven.
1892 Labour Commission Gloss. Wire-cut Brick.
2002 Built It Nov. 22/1 Major stockist of reclaimed handmade and wirecut bricks.
wire-cutter n. (a) an implement for cutting wire; (b) an appliance with a cutting blade formed of wire; spec. a machine for cutting clay into bricks; (c) a person who cuts a wire or wires, esp. as a job.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > pliers and nippers > [noun] > types of
bender1496
wire pliers1675
wire-cutter1794
side nippers1846
long-nose pliers1872
hawkbill1875
flat pliers1881
parrotbill1971
burr-nipper-
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > other manual or industrial workers > [noun] > others
bell-hanger1540
powder monkey1670
articulator1798
universalist1801
sander1854
gummer?1881
shaver1885
wire-cutter1888
knacker1890
radiologist1905
groundhog1926
dogman1948
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier with special duty > [noun] > others
artificera1553
man-catcher1649
stormer1655
sallier1685
pressmana1694
camp colour-man1753
sharpshooter1802
train soldier1833
escalader1849
adviser1854
outflanker1854
observer1870
spiker1884
mopper-up1917
slushy1919
wire-cutter1922
televisionary1925
flash-spotter1930
spotter1931
parashooter1940
parashot1940
bunker buster1944
sound-ranger1978
yomper1982
technical1992
1794 T. Coxe View U.S.A. i. xvi. 377 The wire-cutter and bender for card makers.
1853 Ann. Rep. Ohio State Board Agric. 1852 in Messages to Fiftieth Gen. Assembly State of Ohio XVII. ii. 538 The curd is then cut, with a wire cutter.
1862 Patents for Inventions: Abrigm. Specif. Bricks & Tiles 143 With the addition of proper moulds fixed vertically, and a roller table and a wire cutter, this machine can be made to produce drain tiles or hollow bricks.
1888 in 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.
1905 H. G. Wells Kipps i. vi. §4 Pearce, the dog! had a wire-cutter in his pocket-knife.
1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 919/1 Detachments of wire-cutters, and pioneers, about 50 strong.
1990 J. Morton in A. M. Sowden Maintenance Brick & Stone Masonry Struct. ii. 18/1 This warp of clay is then thrown downwards into the mould, any excess being removed with a wire cutter.
2004 New Yorker 17 May 76/1 Nordahl carried two nylon duffelbags: an empty one for the silver and a smaller one filled with screwdrivers, a carpet knife, wire cutters..and a Wonder Bar.
wire-cutting n. The action or practice of cutting wire; (also) the action or practice of cutting using wire or a wire; frequently attributive.
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the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > separation > action of dividing or divided condition > division by cutting > [noun] > cutting wire
wire-cutting1895
1846 Mechanics' Mag. 19 Dec. 587/2 One [chapter], on ‘Shears’, contains all about wire-cutting nippers and pliers.
1856 Catal. 8th Exhib. Inventions in Jrnl. Soc. Arts 4 App. I. 15/2 This rectangular stream [of clay] is passed forward to a vertical-action wire-cutting apparatus.
1895 Westm. Gaz. 24 Jan. 5/2 The Tramway Strike at Brooklyn... The militia are now using search~lights to detect wire-cutting.
1937 Jrnl. Southern Hist. 3 374 These troubles ended soon after the legislature made wire cutting illegal.
2004 Lee Valley Christmas 2004 Gift Catal. (Lee Valley Tools, Canada) 39 The lower blade has a sap groove to stop the blades from sticking together, and the blade has a wire-cutting notch.
wire dancer n. a person who dances or performs acrobatic feats while balancing on a wire or tightrope.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > acrobat > rope-walker or dancer
walker on ropes1542
funambulo1605
funambulus1607
funambulant1608
rope-walker1611
rope-dancer1627
funambulator1658
funambuler1659
funambule1697
wire dancer1752
equilibrist1760
wire-walker1762
funambulist1789
schoenobatist1821
tightrope dancer1824
aerialist1869
tightrope walker1869
wire-worker1918
blondin1934
1752 B. Thornton Adventurer No. 3. 18 I cannot now have the wire-dancer to bring on my Dancing-bears.
1898 Times 27 Dec. 5/1 The entertainment includes performances by the Neiss troupe of aerial gymnasts, by Carmen, the wire-dancer, and by the famous Craggs.
1998 New Hampsh. Sunday News (Nexis) 5 July e1 Wire dancer David Dimitri, aerial gymnast Elena Serafimovich of Belarus.
wire-dancing n. the action or practice of dancing or performing acrobatic feats while balancing on a wire or tightrope.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > rope-walking or dancing
rope-dancing1625
rope-walking1625
funambuling1650
funambulation1707
rope dance1727
wire-dancing1755
tightrope dancing1800
funambulism1801
wire-walking1804
wire act1891
wirework1899
slacklining1999
1755 World 11 Sept. 846 Experiments..of late years..in..fire-eating, wire-dancing.
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod iii. v. §22. 175 Wire-dancing..consists rather of various feats of balancing..upon the wire.
1926 Mod. Philol. 23 460 Maddox..was drowned with Cibber in 1758 on his way to Dublin to appear as Harlequin with wire dancing in another pantomime.
2004 Gold Coast (Austral.) Bull. (Nexis) 19 Mar. 57 A stunning set design and projection of rare original footage of Colleano wire-dancing.
wire entanglement n. Military a defence formed of (barbed) wire stretched over the ground in order to impede the advance of an enemy.
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > barricade > [noun] > barbed wire
wire entanglement1871
barbed wire1900
wire1915
concertina1917
apron1918
dannert wire1945
1871 Times 16 Feb. 12/2 Barricades on roads, ‘abatis’, ‘wire entanglements’ are not new things any more.
1960 M. E. Lake tr. M. Tsuji Singapore Japanese Version ii. §15. 95 Eventually they reached the wire entanglements. Those with wire-cutters got to work, but they had scarcely commenced when there was a thunderous report and clouds of dust flew up.
1996 Jrnl. Decorative & Propaganda Arts 22 92 (caption) Wire entanglement near Havana. Barbed wire was used extensively by the Spanish in their network of trochas and field fortifications.
wire feed n. Manufacturing Technology a feed or continuous supply of wire; a device for supplying such a feed; frequently attributive.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > types of machine generally > [adjective] > fed or feeding
wire feed1868
roll-fed1911
1868 U.S. Patent 77,104 1/2 On the outside of cam i is fixed a crank-pin, which, through link l, works the lever m, which carries the pawl n, which works the wire feed ratchet-wheel o.
1876 N. Wales Chron. 22 July 4/7 These machines are furnished with Parkhurst's patent wire feed, by which the wire is led forward for each screw without stopping the machine.
2000 Equipm. Today Nov. 23/1 It seems clear that wire feed welding is continuing to climb in popularity among contractors for job-site welding.
wire feeding n. Manufacturing Technology the process of gradually feeding wire to a machine or piece of equipment; frequently attributive.
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1848 Sci. Amer. 12 Feb. 164/4 We also claim the wire-feeding apparatus in its combination with the dies, or machinery for making the hinge joint.
1926 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 10 July 8/6 A. B. Weissenborn, vice president of the Scolding Locks Hairpin company, is the inventor of an improved wire feeding mechanism.
2002 G. Mathers Welding Aluminium (2005) x. 128 Push-pull systems are becoming the standard method of wire feeding in robotic applications.
wire finder n. Electrical Engineering a device which allows an otherwise inaccessible individual electric wire to be located within the group of wires of which it is part.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > transmission of electricity, conduction > wire as conductor > [noun] > insulation for wires > instrument testing
wire finder1867
1867 R. S. Culley Handbk. Pract. Telegr. (ed. 2) x. 220 An instrument called a wire finder, enables any one of a number [of wires] to be picked out without cutting the covering.
1963 U.S. Patent 3,078,073 1 A device for locating an electrical conductor that is inaccessible... The wire finder.
2006 R. J. Shimonski et al. Network Cabling Illuminated xiii. 352 A wire finder is a device that is used to trace energized circuits. It can be used to trace the path a cable takes underground.
wire fox terrier n. a wire-haired fox terrier.
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1885 Leeds Mercury 15 Jan. 5/4 Messrs. A. Maxwell and E. Cassel, Crofthouse, Croft, near Darlington, first with Tees's Venus, wire fox terrier.
1914 Times 23 Jan. 11/4 The Birmingham Society's Thirty-Guinea Challenge Bowl for the best fox, Irish, or Welsh terrier was won by Mr George Quintard's beautiful wire fox terrier bitch.
2002 Dog Fancy Aug. 60/1 Our 1-year-old Wire Fox Terrier..chews up seatbelts.
wire fraud n. fraud perpetrated using telecommunications technology.
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1951 Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 24 Feb. 4/1 The commission wants a radio and wire fraud statute patterned after the present mail fraud law.
2006 Daily Tel. 6 July 4/6 If the defendants were acquitted of all seven counts of wire fraud pending in the indictment, they could face retrial for bank fraud.
wire gauge n. Engineering (a) each of a series of standard diameters or cross-sectional areas with which wire is manufactured; the thickness of a wire in terms of these; cf. standard wire gauge n. at standard n., adj., and int. Compounds 2; (b) a gauge for measuring the diameter of a wire, typically in the form of a circular or rectangular plate with notches of specified sizes round the edge.
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1833 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal II. xiv. 327 Stub's wire gauges.
1859 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 20 May 463/2 The tubes..have only worn to the extent of three wire gauges in thickness; they were ordered and made to No. 13 wire gauge, and are now No. 16 wire gauge.
1876 F. Jenkin Bridges 304/2 Common sizes of wire for the purpose are from 0·16 to 0·14 inches, or say, No. 9 or 10 Birmingham wire gauge.
1962 G. S. H. Lock Introd. Exper. Stress Anal. § v. 48 This gauge, which strictly is an electrical wire gauge, can be used to measure both static and dynamic strains.
2002 Sport Fishing June 42/2 Marine-grade wires, usually measured using American Wire Gauge (AWG) sizes, run about 10 percent larger in diameter.
wire glass n. sheet glass in which wire netting is embedded for reinforcement.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > glass and glass-like materials > [noun] > glass > toughened glass
wire glass1894
armour glass1907
safety glass1912
armour plate1914
triplex1923
1894 Times 29 Aug. 9/3 The manufacture of a new product known as wire-glass is about to be commenced at these works.
1900 Engin. Mag. 19 761/1 Mr. Murphy proposes..to have a section of the roof made of wire-glass.
1995 N. Blincoe Acid Casuals iv. 21 The style of the bar was what they termed post-industrial, meaning that it had yards of bare masonite and the tabletops were panes of reinforced wire glass.
wire ground n. Lacemaking a type of fine mesh background on top of which more intricate patterns may be worked (cf. ground n. 6a).In quot. 1831: attributive designating a type of lace using this.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric manufactured in specific way > [noun] > consisting of loops or looped stitches > lace > ground > specific
point ground1801
réseau de Venise1844
réseau à l'aiguille1865
réseau ordinaire1865
vrai réseau1865
wire ground1865
réseau rosacé1875
cinq trous1882
strand ground1882
oeil-de-perdrix1891
1831 G. Henson Civil Hist. Framework-knitters v. 296 This was afterwards called ‘cross stitch’, and had somewhat of the appearance of wire ground Brussels lace.
1865 F. B. Palliser Hist. Lace iii. 27 The honeycomb network or ground..is of various kinds; wire ground, Brussels ground, [etc.].
1882 S. F. A. Caulfeild & B. C. Saward Dict. Needlework 521/1 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.
2003 M. C. Raffel Laces of Ipswich 152 This type of ground can be found in French and English laces and is also known as kat stitch or wire ground.
wire grub n. now rare = wireworm n. 1.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Nematocera > family Tipulidae > member of (crane-fly) > larva
wireworm1771
wire grub1842
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Diversicornia > family Elateridae > member of (click-beetle) > larva of
wireworm1771
wire grub1842
1842 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 3 19/2 The difference of produce arose from two causes; viz., very heavy rains at the time of sowing, and the wire-grub.
1904 New Jersey 31st Ann. Rep. State Board Agric. 222 The drought prevailed to such an extent that the wire grub ate off the blue grass shoots over thousands of acres.
wire-guided adj. directed or accomplished by means of electric signals transmitted along a wire; spec. (of a missile) connected by a wire to a control or guidance mechanism situated near its launch point (cf. TOW n. at T n. Initialisms 1a).
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society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > [adjective] > types of
wire-guided1921
guided wave1925
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > guided or ballistic missile > [adjective] > guided
self-guided1927
guided1945
teleguided1963
TOW1972
wire-guided1993
1921 Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engineers 40 800 Some tests have been made with wire-guided carrier-current signaling in conjunction with engineers of the United States Signal Corps.
1958 C. C. Adams et al. Space Flight 52 The latter two [rockets]..are wire-guided.
1993 J. Pournelle & S. M. Stirling Prince of Sparta 239 Wire-guided missiles lashed out in return from the Helot positions, beamriders.
2007 Washington Post (Nexis) 25 Nov. 1 Four wire-guided missiles had been loaded.
wire gun n. Military (now rare and historical) a gun whose barrel consists of a segmented core with wire wound tightly round it as reinforcement.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [noun] > other pieces of ordnance
bombardc1430
ribaudequin1443
stock-gun1465
seven sistersa1529
chamber1540
bastard1545
chamber piece1547
volger1548
dogc1550
battardc1565
long shot1595
quarter piece1625
pelican1639
monkey1650
spirol1653
stock-fowler1669
saltamartino1684
smeriglio1688
botcarda1700
carriage gun1723
Lancaster1857
Armstrong1860
wire gun1860
Columbiad1861
Parrott1861
wedge-gun1876
truck-gun1883
motor cannon1889
Black Maria1914
Jack Johnson1914
supergun1915
flak1938
1860 All Year Round 15 Sept. 547/1 He describes his plan of a wire gun, and expounds it theoretically on high grounds of mathematics.
1895 Daily News 1 Feb. 3/1 The Majestic will probably be the first ship to be fitted with the new 12-inch wire guns.
1942 Times 13 Nov. 7/5 He invented the Buffington-Crozier disappearing gun-carriage, and he also invented a wire gun.
† wire heel n. Veterinary Medicine Obsolete (in horses) a foot which is abnormally narrowed esp. towards the rear, often with partial atrophy of the frog; the condition of having such a foot; cf. wire v. 4.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of cattle, horse, or sheep > [noun] > disorders of cattle or horses > other disorders
risen (up)on?1523
barb1721
wire heel1759
blood-stale1816
stale-foul1816
1759 T. Wallis Farrier's & Horseman's Compl. Dict. Wire-Heels, see the article Narrow-Heels.
1762 tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Horse 129 A foot too small in proportion to the body, is weak, often painful, and generally accompanied with wire heels.
1838 Abstr. Proc. Vet. Med. Assoc. 1837–8 2 17 Whenever I have seen this [sc. breaking of the heel-nail] take place, it has been in what is called a wire-heel, i.e. where there is more contraction on one side of the foot than on the other.
† wire-heeled adj. Veterinary Medicine Obsolete (of a horse) having an abnormally narrowed foot.
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a1750 W. Gibson New Treat. Dis. Horses (1751) i. iii. 13 Stretching out the Quarters contracts the Hoof on the Instep, and almost always turns such Horses Hoof-bound and wire-heel'd.
1795 W. Griffiths Pract. Treat. Farriery (ed. 2) 162 The above [sc. sand-cracks] generally happen to narrow wire-heeled Horses.
wire house n. Finance (originally and chiefly U.S.) (originally) a brokerage firm having several branch offices connected to its main office by private telephone or telegraph wires; (now) any large national or international brokerage company.
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society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > [noun] > dealer in stocks and shares > stock-broker > brokerage firm
stockbrokerage1837
wire house1900
1889 N.Y. Times 2 June 2/7 The local bucket shops had swarms of runners out trying to get quotations from the private-wire houses.]
1900 N.Y. Times 13 May 26/2 On the break, Europe, wire houses, New Orleans, and the near faction all sold the new crop positions.
1966 Economist 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.
2003 BusinessWeek 3 Feb. 108/1 The wirehouses should announce which research firms they'll be working with in the next six months.
wire instrument n. (a) a musical instrument with wire strings; (b) an instrument used for working with wire (rare).
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > stringed instruments > [noun] > wire-stringed instrument
wire instrument1654
the world > health and disease > healing > medical appliances or equipment > other medical equipment > [noun] > other miscellaneous equipment
wresting thread1616
tractors1798
tetanomotor1860
examining table1877
wire instrumenta1884
wristband1884
nasal spray1888
mackintosh sheet1889
gas mask1892
bath-bed1894
inspissator1897
Murphy's button1899
trembling-chair1899
solenoid1901
sunray1921
oxygenator1928
white cane1930
white stick1930
microdrive1955
photocoagulator1965
bubble1966
stimoceiver1967
hospital gown1970
smart pill1988
1654 A. Wood Life (1891) I. 190 John Trap of Trinity, [who played] on the citerne; and Georg Mason..on another wyer instrument.
1756 W. Tans'ur New Musical Gram. (ed. 3) Pref. p. v Queen Elizabeth was a great Practitioner on the Poliphant, a Wire Instrument like a Lute.
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 951/1 Wire Instruments..for manipulating wire in surgical practice.
2004 Hindustan Times (Nexis) 12 Dec. The Algoza, a double fluted wind instrument, played in accompaniment with the Dotara, a two stringed wire instrument.
wire iron n. now chiefly historical iron in the form of rods for use in the manufacture of wire; cf. osmund n.1
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [noun] > type of iron > bar-iron > types of
osmund1295
ozimus1550
nail-rod1774
bolt-iron1793
hoop-iron1820
hooping1823
mill bar1839
larget1852
wire iron1952
1849 Leeds Mercury 4 Aug. 9/3 There were..many beautiful designs in wire-iron garden chairs, the single seat chairs being comfortable in use and very portable.
1952 Econ. Hist. Rev. 4 333 A large part of its production of refined metal was in the form of Osmund, or wire iron, which required more working than merchant bar iron.
1996 R. B. Gordon Amer. Iron (2001) 317 Wire iron had to be strong, and it did not matter if it could not be welded or was hot- or cold-short.
wire mark n. Papermaking a faint line impressed on to paper by the wires of the mould used during its manufacture; (also) a watermark.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > material for making paper > paper > [noun] > wire- or chain-lines
wire mark1795
wire lines1819
chain-line1880
chain-mark1923
1795 Repertory of Arts 3 378 The French [paper], being made on common moulds, leaves the wire-mark, which prevents an equal surface.
1840 Penny Cycl. XVII. 209/2 Various wire-marks, or water-marks, as they are called.
1912 Times 10 Sept. 34/2 The longitudinal and transverse wires gave rise to the so-called ‘wire marks’ in the paper, and the special device produced the well-known ‘watermark’ generally found in the centre of the sheet.
2006 H. Holik Handbk. Paper & Board vi. 272 The properties of the wire..influence the surface properties of the web (wire mark).
wire micrometer n. a micrometer used in a telescope, having horizontal and vertical wires at the focus of the eyepiece.Cf. Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) (1717) 30 604: ‘Mr. Gascoigne was the first that measured the Diameters of the Planets, &c. by a Micrometer’, quoting a letter of Gascoigne's dated 25 Jan. 1642.
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the world > the universe > cosmology > science of observation > astronomical instruments > observational instruments > [noun] > telescope > part of > micrometer > types of
wire micrometer1772
filar micrometer1874
1772 Philos. Trans. 1771 (Royal Soc.) 61 536 The common wire micrometer is peculiarly adapted for measuring differences of right ascension and declination of celestial objects.
1836 F. W. Simms Principal Math. Instruments (ed. 2) 41 A delicate wire micrometer attached to the eye-end of the telescope, by which the distances of the staff from the instrument are accurately determined.
1922 H. S. Jones Gen. Astron. ix. 221 Determination of Diameters of Planets... The wire micrometer is generally uses, the wires being placed tangentially to the two limbs of the planet and then crossed over.
2002 W. M. Jackson in C. Baker Absolutism & Sci. Revol. 129 Gascoigne is generally admitted to be the inventor of the wire micrometer and of the attachment of this device to the interior of the eyepiece of a telescope.
† wire-milker n. Obsolete rare a person who taps a telephone or telegraph wire; see milk v. 9.
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1899 C. J. C. Hyne Further Adventures Capt. Kettle vi. 131 The wire-milkers.
wire money n. Numismatics (now rare) a type of silver coinage minted in 1792, inscribed with very slender wire-like numerals.
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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > other miscellaneous English coins
baselinga1255
scute1472
basel1577
lundress1695
halfling1819
wire money1837
brabant1840
fifty-pence piece1969
twenty-pence piece1981
1837 W. Till Ess. Rom. Denarius & Eng. Sliver Penny 103 The wire money, so termed from the numeral being extremely fine.
1913 F. W. Burgess Chats on Old Coins xiv. 240 The Maundy money of George III followed the type of the current issues, with the exception of the year 1792, when a distinct change was made, in the type of the numeral of value, which took the form of script writing, and became known as ‘wire’ money, from the delicate wire-like writing of the numeral.
1996 Standard Catal. Brit. Coins: Coins of Eng. & U.K. (ed. 31) 271 Fourpence..Thin 4 (‘Wire Money’), 1792.
wire nail n. a nail circular or oval in section, not tapering but with a pointed tip, and typically having a thin circular head.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > fastenings > [noun] > nail > with thin circular head
wire nail1851
oval1988
1851 Mag. Hort. 17 166 If the parts are of the thickness of the little finger..their consolidation would be aided by a wire nail, driven through the junction.
1895 Amer. Naturalist 29 935 A bright polished wire nail gave a clear zone about 7 to 10 mm. wide.
1997 Pract. Householder Oct. 36/2 The round wire nail is used in rough carpentry, and comes in sizes up to 150mm long.
wire-nailing n. rare the action of nailing or stapling something using wire.
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1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2793/1 Wire-nailing Machine, a machine for closing shoes with wire.
1921 U.S. Patent 1,394,478 1/2 A wire nailing machine, while adapted for slugging, is not adapted for sole attaching.
wire nut n. originally U.S. (a proprietary name for) a small, narrow conical connector for holding the ends of two or more electric wires that are to be connected without solder, typically made of plastic or ceramic and containing a means of mechanically securing the wires.
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1937 Electr. Buyers Guide 1938 Index 34/3 Wire nuts, see Connectors, insulated solderless.
1947 N.Y. Times 2 June 35/4 The ‘wire-nut’ is a device for joining electrical wires together by screwing on to the end of the wire—like a nut on a bolt.
2005 M. W. Litchfield Renovation (ed. 3) xi. 247/1 To ensure a continuous ground throughout the system, splice together copper ground wires, using wire nuts or crimps.
wire pliers n. pliers for bending and shaping wire.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > pliers and nippers > [noun] > types of
bender1496
wire pliers1675
wire-cutter1794
side nippers1846
long-nose pliers1872
hawkbill1875
flat pliers1881
parrotbill1971
burr-nipper-
1675 R. Hooke Diary 11 Aug. (1935) 174 Bought of Ironmonger 33 tiles 5sh., wireplyers 6d. [etc.].
1888 Lockwood's Dict. 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.
2007 Miami Herald (Nexis) 4 Oct. b1 The boarder grabbed wire pliers, a piece of cloth sack, ran outside and filled his mouth with icy well water.
wire puzzle n. a puzzle, the object of which is to disentangle two or more wire shapes linked together in such a way that only one sequence of movements will free them.
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society > leisure > entertainment > toy or plaything > puzzle > [noun] > ring or wire puzzle
tarrier1601
tiring-irons1601
wire puzzle1898
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.
1900 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Evening Sentinel 25 Aug. 13/6 I suppose I must forgive him for transforming my new free-wheel bicycle into an American wire puzzle.
1992 S. Prospere Sub Rosa 75 Reverend Dodgson rowed Alice Liddell and her sisters through dull weather from Folly Bridge to Godstow, having left behind wire puzzles and safety pins.
wire recorder n. now chiefly historical an apparatus for recording sounds on magnetizable wire and afterwards reproducing them.
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society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > sound recording or reproducing equipment > [noun]
talking machine1844
recorder1867
phonograph1877
dictating machine1878
melograph1879
melodiographa1884
graphophone1886
photographophone1901
auxetophone1904
Dictaphone1906
telediphone1931
transcriber1931
wire recorder1934
sound truck1936
high fidelity1938
Soundscriber1946
player1948
rig1950
transcriptor1957
unit1966
sequencer1975
boom box1981
ghetto blaster1983
beat-box1985
1934 Piqua (Ohio) Daily Call 25 Oct. 6/2 The wire recorder, which already has attracted the attention of sound engineers, makes use of the principal of arrested magnetism.
1948 J. Kerouac Jrnl. 18 June in Windblown World (2004) 95 A certain gadget, the wire-recorder, may help in some respects, although it's a bit awkward to spill your visions into a microphone.
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.
2002 Isis 93 342/1 Begun's dictation machine, the ‘Dailygraph’ (ca. 1930), was a wire recorder.
wire recording n. now chiefly historical the action or process of making a recording using a wire recorder; a recording made in this way.
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society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > [noun] > systems of
phonography1861
wire recording1933
stereophony1950
half-track1956
stereo1956
stereophonics1958
lip-synchronization1959
mono1959
monophony1959
pretaping1959
over-recording1961
Dolby1966
quadraphonics1968
quadraphony1969
surround sound1969
periphony1970
quad1971
multitrack1972
quadraphonic1972
quadro1972
pseudoquadraphony1975
multitracking1977
vertical recording1982
bitstream1989
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > a sound recording > [noun] > type of
phonogram1878
phonograph record1878
phonautogram1887
re-recording1927
sound picture1928
studio recording1929
talking book1932
wire recording1933
audiobook1942
bootleg1951
music track1953
demo1954
single track1959
soundbite1973
pod2006
1933 Amer. Speech 8 ii. 77/1 Similar information should be given for film, strip, and wire recordings.
1937 Waukesha (Wisconsin) Daily Freeman 31 July 3/1 (advt.) Microphone and 15-minute reel for wire recording included.
2004 D. L. Morton Sound Recording x. 108 At least $1·7 million of wire recording equipment was sold to the U.S. Navy.
wire report n. (originally) a news report transmitted by telegraph; (now chiefly) a news report issued by a newswire, irrespective of the means of transmission.
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1862 R. Conkling Let. 10 May in A. R. Conkling Life & Lett. R. Conkling (1889) xi. 173 The ——, after publishing the wire report of W——, has taken care not to publish the square retraction and apology he made.
1893 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 18 Dec. 1/3 Four columns of solid evidence on the..case were telegraphed to the London press last night, which is the biggest wire report of a murder trial.
1955 Science 18 Feb. 245/2 Many of these wire reports were relayed to news outlets in every country on the globe.
2001 Financial Times (Nexis) 1 Feb. (London ed. 2) 50 Traders followed a wire report that the troubled German group had hired a couple of heavyweight banks to prepare takeover defences.
wire-rim n. and adj. (a) n. (in plural) wire-framed spectacles; (b) adj.(of spectacles) having wire frames (cf. wire-frame adj. 1).
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the world > health and disease > healing > ophthalmology or optometry > aids to defective vision > [adjective] > types of spectacles
steel-rimmeda1400
steelbowed1606
young1667
near-sighted1796
trifocal1826
steel-bow1834
pantoscopic1836
window glass1885
bifocal1888
horn-rimmed1894
pebbled1928
thick-lensed1946
single-vision1962
wire-rim1968
wire-frame1977
Lennon1984
the world > health and disease > healing > ophthalmology or optometry > aids to defective vision > [noun] > spectacles > other types of spectacles
half-moon glasses1607
half-moon spectacles1607
blinkers1732
temple-spectacles1762
reading glass1853
distance glasses1864
horn spectacles1893
bifocal1899
trifocal1899
horn-rims1927
harlequin spectacles1940
harlequin glasses1945
library frame1948
aviator1951
library glasses1959
library spectacles1962
multifocals1962
wire-rim1968
1968 H. Chasin Coming Close & Other Poems 44 Peering through wire rims you seem heaven-sent to record mundane happenings.
1977 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 23 July 10/2 Slender, with a trim beard and wire-rim glasses.
2006 Time Out N.Y. 13 Apr. 23/1 Whether your look is Jules Verne-esque gold-fill round-wire rims..or disco-era aviators..this jam-packed boutique's got it.
wire saw n. a kind of saw (used esp. in cutting stone) the cutting blade of which is made of wire.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > cutting tool > saw > [noun] > other saws
handsaw1399
rug-saw1582
frame saw1633
nocksaw1659
bow-saw1678
lock saw1688
stadda1688
wire saw1688
panel saw1754
keyhole saw1761
web saw1799
table saw1832
rack saw1846
scroll-saw1851
fretsaw1865
back saw1874
foxtail-saw1874
tub-saw1874
gullet-saw1875
Swede saw1934
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory 501 Wyer Saw.
1848 S. W. Williams Middle Kingdom II. xv. 116 The pebble is cut in a lathe by a wire-saw working in its own dust, into a round shape with plane edges.
1991 New Yorker 14 Oct. 89/1 Acord could have achieved more or less the same shape and surface by having the rough block cut with a wire saw and then blasted with ball bearings to produce a sparkly ‘steeled’ finish.
wire service n. chiefly U.S. (originally) a telegraph service; (now chiefly) a news agency that supplies syndicated news to its subscribers (cf. newswire n. 2).
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society > communication > journalism > supply of news or newspapers > [noun] > news agency
press agency1859
news service1870
news agency1873
newswire1941
wire service1941
1887 Frank Leslie's Illustr. Newspaper 20 Aug. 2/3 Information concerning the events that are occurring in all parts of the world is conveyed through the ‘wire service’, under the control of the Associated Press.
1902 Times 17 Dec. 11/1 The wire service was considerably crippled by a storm in the west, and somewhat checked activity throughout the greater part of the day.
1941 M. A. deFord They were San Franciscans iv. 126 The Herald was refused the franchise, and an attempt by George to set up an independent wire service was crushed by the established competitor.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 17 July iv. 13/3 The ardently pro-Bush New York Post ran only five paragraphs of a wire-service story on Page 12.
wire shirt n. a shirt made of wire, used either as an instrument of torture or for self-mortification; cf. hair-shirt n.
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1845 D. P. Kidder Sketches of Resid. & Trav. in Brazil I. v. 88 Any one of his cilices [note Wire-shirts]..was an efficacious remedy against impure thoughts.
1869 R. Browning Ring & Bk. III. ix. 231 For the warm arms, were wont enfold thy flesh, Let wire-shirt plough and whip-cord discipline.
1878 J. Payn By Proxy I. xii. 143 The wire shirt; it fits quite closely, you see; you pull it, and the skin comes through, and then a razor is run over the outside.
1994 Woman's Art Jrnl. 15 18/1 She wore a wire shirt underneath her habit and regularly suspended herself on a cross.
wire silver n. Mining (now rare) silver which occurs naturally in wire-shaped pieces.
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the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > native elements and alloys > [noun] > native silver
virgin silver1726
wire silver1867
wire1882
1867 J. R. Browne & J. W. Taylor Rep. Mineral Resources U.S. 209 ‘Wire silver’, usually closely associated with silver glance and stephanite.
1882 Rep. Prec. Metals U.S. 177 Well-defined veins, carrying ruby silver, black sulphuret,..and wire silver.
1955 R. M. Pearl How to know Minerals & Rocks 71 Wire silver and crystals of unsurpassed beauty were produced for hundreds of years at Kongsberg, Norway.
wiresmith n. now historical a person who makes metal into wire, esp. by hammering; cf. wire-drawer n. 1.
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1438 in B. Thuresson Middle Eng. Occup. Terms (1950) 227 (MED) Joh. Buller, wiresmyth.
1797 W. Johnston tr. J. Beckmann Hist. Inventions & Discov. II. 232 As long as the work was performed by the hammer, the artists at Nuremburg were called wire-smiths; but after the invention of the drawing-iron they were called wire-drawers.
1854 Friends' Rev. 26 Aug. 795/1 The French and English wire-smiths became also in due time wire-drawers.
2000 J. R. Farr Artisans in Europe, 1300–1914 ii. 52 The fourteenth century saw the appearance of, among others, wiresmiths, bottle-makers, brass smiths, and dicemakers.
wire-stitcher n. an automatic stapling machine, chiefly used in the production of books, in which the staples are formed from a continuous wire as an integral part of the operation.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > manufacture or production of books > book-binding > bookbinding equipment > [noun] > machines
arming press1832
smasher1876
smashing-machinea1877
backing-machine1879
sewing machine1880
wire-stitcher1882
bumper1951
smashing-press-
1882 Daily Nevada State Jrnl. 29 June 3/1 The machinery employed consists of 10 cylinder presses, 5 small presses, 8 folders, 3 wire stitchers, 2 trimmers [etc.].
1967 V. Strauss Printing Industry x. 660/1 Foot-operated wire stitchers..are used for short runs or for jobs that cannot be handled on more automatic machinery.
2004 Print Week (Nexis) 4 Nov. 35 Specifications may be added or removed at will for the wire-stitcher, laminator and binder.
wire-stitching n. (chiefly in book production) the action or practice of stitching or stapling with wire esp. using a wire-stitcher.
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society > communication > book > manufacture or production of books > book-binding > [noun] > wire-stitching
wire-stitching1881
society > communication > book > manufacture or production of books > book-binding > [adjective] > wire-stitched or wire-stitching
wire-stitching1881
wire-stitched1920
saddle-wired1924
1881 Evening News 26 July 4 (advt.) Over one hundred machines in motion [in a printing and paper-making exhibition]... Wire stitching, paging, gumming, etc.
1957 Encycl. Brit. III. 859/2 The automatic assembling, wire-stitching and covering machine units complete the operation of pamphlet binding.
2000 Printing World 7 Feb. 23/2 (advt.) Print Finishing. Eyeletting. Washering. Drilling. Programmatic Guillotine Cutting. Stringing. Loop and Wire Stitching. Padding. Fabrication Work.
wire-stitch v. rare (transitive) to stitch or staple (a book, magazine, etc.) using wire, esp. by means of a wire-stitcher.
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society > communication > book > manufacture or production of books > book-binding > bind [verb (transitive)] > wire-stitch
wire-stitch1902
1902 Census 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.
1923 H. A. Maddox Dict. Stationery 69 Saddle Stitching, the method of wire stitching pamphlets and single section books through the centre of the fold.
wire-stitched adj. that has been stitched or stapled with wire; spec. (of a book, etc.) bound using a wire-stitcher.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > manufacture or production of books > book-binding > [adjective] > wire-stitched or wire-stitching
wire-stitching1881
wire-stitched1920
saddle-wired1924
1920 T. J. Wise Bibliogr. Writings J. Conrad i. 23 There are also no signatures, the pamphlet being composed of a single half-sheet folded to form 8 pages. Issued wire-stitched, and without wrappers.
1962 Western Folklore 21 128 This wire-stitched paperback contains a verbatim recording of two informal symposia.
2005 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 2 Dec. e1 26/1 (caption) A fabriclike hanging of wire-stitched aluminum by the Nigerian-based artist El Anatsui.
wire story n. Journalism (originally and chiefly U.S.) a story distributed by a wire service.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journal > matter of or for journals > [noun] > story > types of
sob story1913
wire story1943
cover story1945
MEGO1977
spoiler1985
1943 ‘B. Halliday’ Murder wears Mummer's Mask xviii. 205 All the important critics were there—the hot shots from the East whose wire stories to their papers could make or break an actress.
1979 J. Crosby Party of Year (1980) iii. 25 The foreign desk was behind a glass screen... Feinberg was editing a wire story.
2004 C. Cobb Ego & Ink xxiii. 318 Reporters received calls from Post editors and ‘rewrite’ people—reporters employed to retool wire stories in Post style.
wire-strainer n. chiefly U.S., Australian, and New Zealand (a) a strainer, filter, or sieve made of wire; (b) = wire-stretcher n.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering dimensions > [noun] > stretcher > types of
otter-board1771
wire-stretcher1875
wire-strainer1882
1830 S. F. Gray & A. L. Porter Chem. of Arts II. 597 If a copper wire strainer is judged improper, a wooden grating may be substituted.
1882 A. S. Armstrong & G. O. 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.
1975 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 57/1 The installation of permanent wire strainers on each strand of a new fence..would overcome this difficulty.
2006 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 21 June 4 e Whirl ricotta cheese in blender or press through wire strainer.
wire-stretcher n. chiefly North American a device for stretching or making taut the wire of a fence, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering dimensions > [noun] > stretcher > types of
otter-board1771
wire-stretcher1875
wire-strainer1882
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 2797/2 Wire-stretcher, a tool for straining lightly telegraph or fence wires.
1958 J. 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.
2001 C. H. Wendel Encycl. Antique Tools & Machinery 81/1 The wire was unrolled, tied to the corner post on one end of say, an 80-rod stretch, and a wire stretcher was applied to the other end.
wire stripper n. (in singular and plural) a tool used to remove the insulation from electric wire.
ΚΠ
1894 Sandusky (Ohio) Reg. 13 June Wire stripper.
1993 Which? Jan. 16/3 Use wire strippers to cut away about 50 mm (2 in) of the outer sheath of the supply cord.
2004 Boys Toys July 26/3 It's got..scissors, large blade,..wire stripper, sewing eye—and a whole lot more.
wire-tailed adj. (of a bird) having distinctive long, slender tail feathers.
ΚΠ
1823 J. Latham Gen. Hist. Birds VII. 309 Wire-tailed Swallow... Inhabits India.
1911 Times 16 Dec. 14/1 Our swallow visits India too, but in Rohtak it is the wiretailed and Sykes's striated swallows that are found.
2002 Condor 104 773/2 Leks of Wire-tailed Manakins were located in the seasonally flooded river-edge and gallery forests along the Orinoco River.
wire twist n. now historical and rare a composition of iron and steel welded together and rolled into rods, used for gun barrels; cf. wire gun n.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > steel > [noun] > steel and iron rolled in rods
wire twist1825
1825 Trans. Soc. Arts 43 107 When the barrel is complete, the twist is raised by laying the barrel from one to five days either in vinegar or a solution of the sulphate of iron, until the twist is raised; this process is called the wire twist.
1872 Sci. Amer. 11 May 304/2 Damascus and wire twist are now made by ‘piling’ plates of iron and steel alternately.
1991 Richmond (Ohio) Gaz. 6 Nov. 7/4 The opportunity to view and to handle such guns as..an antique double barrel shotgun with a Damascus (wire twist) barrell [sic].
wire-walker n. an acrobat who performs feats of balancing on a wire or tightrope.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > acrobat > rope-walker or dancer
walker on ropes1542
funambulo1605
funambulus1607
funambulant1608
rope-walker1611
rope-dancer1627
funambulator1658
funambuler1659
funambule1697
wire dancer1752
equilibrist1760
wire-walker1762
funambulist1789
schoenobatist1821
tightrope dancer1824
aerialist1869
tightrope walker1869
wire-worker1918
blondin1934
1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World II. 86 Stage-players, fire-eaters, singing women, dancing-dogs, wild beasts, and wire-walkers.
1895 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Feb. 4/2 Miss Virginia Aragon is the most finished wire-walker that we can remember.
1958 Film Q. Autumn 18/1 He tries everything as he grows up. If there is a wire-walker this week..he tries walking a wire when nobody's looking.
2003 Observer 19 Jan. (Mag.) 28/1 They were tough, old-fashioned wire-walkers who toured from town to town, hiring the square for the night and rigging a wire 18 yards up.
wire-walking n. the action or practice of performing feats of balancing on a wire.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > acrobatic performance > [noun] > rope-walking or dancing
rope-dancing1625
rope-walking1625
funambuling1650
funambulation1707
rope dance1727
wire-dancing1755
tightrope dancing1800
funambulism1801
wire-walking1804
wire act1891
wirework1899
slacklining1999
1804 in J. Barrow Trav. China 205 I saw none at all comparable to the tumbling, rope-dancing, wire-walking, and straw-balancing of Sadler's Wells.
1920 Variety 31 Dec. 124 She learned acrobatics..wire walking and aerial work.
2003 Observer 19 Jan. (Mag.) 26/2 Petit's wire-walking is as much a feat of engineering as it is of acrobatic skill and artistry.
wireway n. a groove or channel for containing a wire; spec. a channel or duct for containing lengths of wiring within walls or underground; (as a mass noun) ducting of this kind.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > transmission of electricity, conduction > wire as conductor > [noun] > protective tube or trough
diffuser1847
wireway1875
conduit1882
duct1892
1875 U.S. Patent 161,175 1/2 The carriage A is hung and conveyed by grooved wheels on a strong wire-rope... The end of the hoisting-rope..may be adjusted vertically..for allowing for different inclinations of the wireway.
1883 U.S. Patent 279,646 2/1 The wires..are contained within the wireways or pipes, sunken to depths which can be almost indefinitely varied.
1932 A. L. Abbott National Electr. Code Handbk. viii. 97 (caption) A length of wireway with hinged cover.
1964 R. F. Ficchi Electr. Interference x. 192 A bare ground wire rubbing against a chassis or wireway can cause a considerable amount of noise in a system.
2006 Western Mail (Cardiff) (Nexis) 9 Aug. 10 A focus on IT infrastructure work that involves the installation of..‘wireways’ within buildings.
wire wheel n. a wheel on a car, motorcycle, etc., having wire spokes (formerly used esp. on sports models).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicles according to means of motion > vehicle moving on wheels > [noun] > parts of vehicle moving on wheels > wheel > of specific type or position
cartwheelc1386
truckle1459
trundle1564
clog-wheel1575
trindle1594
coach-wheel1647
roulette1659
roller1763
horizontal wheel1794
castora1800
castor-wheel1805
artillery wheel1834
training wheel1848
trailing wheel1850
spider-wheel1868
front wheel1878
trailer1884
trendle1887
wire wheel1907
square wheels1924
jockey-wheel1952
1907 Times 11 June 4/3 The use of wire wheels was so general that it can only be noted as a welcome indication of an early advance in this direction.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 4/2 The Humber detachable wire wheel..is said to be 50 per cent. stronger than wood.
1963 L. Deighton Horse under Water xxxii. 124 ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘got me an E-type Jag: Cambridge blue—wire wheels—it's a gas.’
2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 29 Oct. viii. 13/1 The neoclassic's primary calling cards are upswept fenders, upright grilles, wire wheels and tangles of exhaust pipes (often fake) snaking out of the hood.
wire wool n. fine wire formed into a mat or pad and used esp. for cleaning and scouring.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > scouring, scrubbing, or rubbing > [noun] > implement for scouring or scrubbing > steel wool
steel wool1896
wire wool1916
1916 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 11 Jan. 7/6 On the shelf above the sink..stands a package of wire wool, the most effective article for cleaning pots and pans that has ever been invented.
1958 J. Cannan And be Villain iii. 71 A cupboard where detergents, a reserve of dishcloths and the rolls of wire wool were kept.
2006 Good Woodworking June 36/1 When dry rub back with 0 gauge wire wool, then polish.
wire window n. a window covered by a wire grille; cf. sense 15.
ΚΠ
1608–9 in J. Robertson & C. Innes Munimenta Univ. Glasguensis (1854) III. 562 xii irne battis to the wyre windois vj s. viij d.
1734 Builder's Dict. II. at Window There are various Kinds and Forms of Windows, Wire Windows, Horn Windows, &c.
1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 66/1 A thorough draught of air by means of opposite wire windows.
1991 Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) (Nexis) 19 May a1 It's real easy to hang yourself off those wire windows, and there's places in the bathroom to do yourself, too.
wire-wound adj. (a) (esp. of a gun) wound or encircled with wire (cf. wire gun n.); now historical; (b) (of an electrical component, esp. a resistor) consisting of a coil of electrical wire wound around a core.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > piece of artillery > [adjective] > type of artillery by construction
chamber-bored1669
breeched1830
wire-wound1865
multicharge1883
chase-hooped1886
trunnionless1890
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > voltage > electrical potential > [adjective] > relating to potentiometer
wire-wound1910
potentiometric1911
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical engineering > motor > [adjective] > of windings
phase-wound1907
wire-wound1910
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electronics > electronic devices or components > [adjective] > of resistor: encircled with wire
wire-wound1946
1865 A. L. Holley Treat. Ordnance & Armor iii. 266 If the inability of the Armstrong gun to resist the destructive effects of vibration is due mainly to its great number of layers..the wire-wound gun is certain to fail from this cause.
1910 H. 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.
1946 Nature 30 Nov. 799/2 The development of a vitreous enamel coating for fixed wire-wound resistors.
1999 Daily Tel. 28 Jan. (Connected section) 10/1 High voltages were generated using wire-wound inductors.
2004 M. J. Bastable Arms & State i. 44 Brunel considered his wire-wound gun a substantial step forward that deserved respect.
b. In the names of plants with slender wiry stems, as †wire bent, wire-weed. See also wiregrass n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > a grass or grasses > [noun] > mat-grass
white bent1620
wire bent1756
mat-grass1777
nardus1777
nard1866
small matweed1866
the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > weed > [noun] > knot-grass
swine's grasslOE
bird's-tonguea1300
sparrow's-tonguea1400
corrigiolec1400
swinecress?a1425
knot-grass1538
way-grass1565
centinode1611
pinkweed1657
breadwort1736
stone-weed1847
allseed1855
knotwort1864
wire-weed1864
willow weed1866
knotweed1884
1756 P. Browne Civil & Nat. Hist. Jamaica ii. ii. 126 The small Wire-rush... The larger Wire-rush. Both these little plants are very frequent in the swamps of Jamaica.
1797 J. Bailey & G. Culley Gen. View Agric. Northumberland 127 Nardus stricta. Wirebent.
1808 J. Walker Econ. Hist. Hebrides II. 87 The Wire bent is so called, because the flower stalks very much resemble, in shape and size, a stocking wire.
1864 Times 27 Dec. 9/4 The whole field was overspread with a luxuriant growth of the knot-grass or wire-weed, a plant that springs up..wherever the soil is disturbed.
1928 A. E. Pease Dict. Dial. N. Riding Yorks. 157/2 Wirerush, the hard rush.
1961 W. Martin Flora N.Z. (ed. 4) 5 A little lower down where the seaweeds are permanently submerged we have such plants as the Grapelet, the Wire-Weed, and Ox-tongue.
2003 High Country News 9 June 7/1 In the kipukas we discovered dainty, fragrant wildflowers: wire lettuce and scorpionweed, wild onion and seabland penstemon.

Derivatives

ˈwire-like adj.
ΚΠ
1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature 134 (caption) A Wire-like Substance proceeding from the same.
1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea i. x. 141 Instead of tail, he has twelve or thirteen black naked wirelike shafts, hanging promiscuously like feathers.
1875 B. W. Richardson Dis. Mod. Life 31 Those small wire-like worms called ascarides in the lower part of the alimentary canal.
2002 T. Shimoda Fourth Treasure (2003) 15/1 The slender, wirelike tissue trailing from the cell body.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

wiren.2

Brit. /ˈwʌɪə/, U.S. /ˈwaɪ(ə)r/
Forms: Middle English wyre, 1500s wheire, 1500s–1600s wier, 1600s wyer.
Origin: Apparently a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: iron n.1
Etymology: Apparently a variant of iron n.1 (compare ε. forms at that entry) by association with wire n.1 Compare wiry adj.2Some of the examples listed below may rather show wire n.1 Compare the following example from the English version of a text previously published in Portuguese and Italian, where wier corresponds to the name of a metal (bronze) in the Italian and a word meaning ‘metal wire’ in the Portuguese:1582 N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias xvi. f.42 There was a pillour made of wier [Port. darame, It. di bronzo], the which was as high as the mast of a ship, vpon the top thereof stoode a wether cock, made likewise of wier [Port. do mesmo arame, It. di bronzo]. With quots. 1406 and 1456 compare iron hat n.
Now historical.
= iron n.1 wire hat n. Armour (now historical and rare) (apparently) an iron (or possibly mail) cap worn beneath a helmet; cf. coif n. 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [noun]
ironeOE
wire1406
1406 in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1836) I. 343 (MED) Lego..j wyrehatt cum j Carlele ax.
1456 in Archaeologia (1812) 16 126 A Wyre hatt garnysshed ye bordour Serkyll.
1567 Aldeburgh Rec. in Notes & Queries 12th Ser. 7 142/2 Makynge wheire gudgyons.
1630 Maldon (Essex) Documents (Bundle 217, No. 22) iiii. Wyer candlesticks, 8d.
1682 in H. More Contn. Remark. Stories 63 That a Wier-Candlestick..might be turned into Brass.
1858 Gentleman's Mag. Nov. 439 In the English of the day we meet with the old coif de mailles under the name ‘wire hat’.
1912 C. Ffoulkes Armourer & his Craft Gloss. 167 Wire hat, see coif.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

wirev.

Brit. /ˈwʌɪə/, U.S. /ˈwaɪ(ə)r/
Forms: see wire n.1; also late Middle English ywyrede (past participle).
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: wire n.1
Etymology: < wire n.1
†1.
a. transitive. To adorn with (gold) wire. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > ornamental art and craft > artistic work in metal > cover with metal [verb (transitive)] > ornament with wire
wirec1400
c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 208 Her ȝelewe her was faire atired, Mid riche strenges of golde wyred.
b. intransitive. To wind or twist about. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > action of river > flow (of river) [verb (intransitive)] > meander
foldc1420
meander1613
straya1616
wire1633
wriggle1640
wimple1720
1633 P. Fletcher Purple Island iv. xxi. 43 In small streams (through all the Island wiring).
c. transitive. To entwine. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > curvature > coil > [verb (transitive)] > coil round (something)
enlacec1374
whipc1500
wreathe1509
enwrap1578
circumvolute1599
twine1602
ingyre1610
wrap?1611
wire1645
serpenta1660
whirl1676
convolute1698
intertwine1717
entwine1796
overtwinea1817
enwind1849
warplea1870
1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ i. xiii. 25 As the Vine her lovely Elm doth wire.
2.
a. transitive. To fasten, join, or secure using wire; to fit or provide with wire or wires.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > working with tools or equipment > fastening > fasten [verb (transitive)] > with wire
wire1435
1435–6 in H. E. Salter Churchwardens' Accts. St. Michael's Oxf. (1933) 36 Item, for i lib. of talow candell y-wyrede to the rode soler.
1542 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1908) VIII. 132 To Peris to wyre the caisis of the windois.
1683 P. Lorrain tr. P. Muret Rites Funeral To Rdr. sig. A 4v A Skeleton how neatly soever hung and wir'd together, is not an Object so entertaining as a Venus.
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1678 (1955) IV. 141 They..Then put it [sc. pulp] in a Vessel of Water, in which they dip a frame closely wyred, with wyer as small as an haire.
1706 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1885) I. 226 One of the Sceleton's in ye Anatomy Schoole was wired by one Wells a Smith.
1796 M. Edgeworth Lazy Lawrence in 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?
1837 M. R. Mitford Country Stories (1850) 124 He had written the label and wired the root.
1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 377 Jaw retained in position by wiring the fragments together.
1910 Gage Making & Lapping (Machinery's Ref. Ser.) (rev. ed.) ii. 17 In handling for hardening they are wired around the outside with a short piece of soft iron wire, to afford a means of handling and avoid the contact of tongs.
1943 B. Smith Tree grows in Brooklyn xliii. 327 The pimply-faced utility boy, distributed the stems to the ‘pet'lers’ who wired paper rose petals to them.
1981 R. Westall Scarecrows xii. 95 The peeling white gates had been wired up by order of the Flossies.
2001 High Country News 19 Nov. 10/1 They bulldozed levees and set up rows of Kellner jetty jacks—iron beams bolted and wired together to capture sediment and stabilize the riverbanks.
b. transitive. To surround or enclose with a wire fence or mesh; to fence in with wire. Also: to cover over with wire.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > building or providing with specific parts > build or provide with specific parts [verb (transitive)] > furnish or surround with fence or hedge
haya1050
palea1382
palis?a1400
hain14..
tinec1440
bara1500
mound1515
impale1530
stowerc1555
palisado1607
teen1616
palisade1632
impile1633
cancel1650
wire1691
inrail1714
ring-fence1761
whin-kid1876
the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > enclose [verb (transitive)] > with a fence or hedge > with wire
wire1691
1691 J. Gibson in Archaeologia 12 184 The enclosure wired-in for white pheasants and partridges.
1746 R. Poole Journey France & Holland (ed. 2) I. 162/1 Most Part of the Southern Side is thus open to the Air, and pretty closely wired, only to confine the Birds within.
1774 J. Wesley Let. 26 July (1931) VI. 104 You must..wire over the cupola.
1843 Times 2 Sept. 3/6 Some..got up the wall to the windows, which are wired over, but fortunately they were screwed down.
1854 Poultry Chron. 2 60 A range of tables, the under part of which was wired in to form pens for the geese.
1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Jan. 23/2 Americans appear to hunt..over country so closely wired as to be only passable at specially prepared or ‘panelled’ jumps.
1964 P. White Let. 17 Apr. (1994) viii. 254 The garden is enough to keep us happy, and already wired to receive dogs.
2006 S. Craig & R. Harvey Roosters & Hens for Appreciative Eye 20 A raccoon oozed through one of the eave openings (which we hadn't thought to wire over, as they were small).
c. transitive. To provide with a wire support; to strengthen or stiffen with wire.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > support > [verb (transitive)] > with wire
wire1834
1834 J. R. Planché Hist. Brit. Costume 274 The ruff was..starched and wired as usual.
1882 J. Ashton Social Life Reign of Queen Anne I. xiii. 151 In 1711 the coats used to be wired to make them stick out.
1906 Lady 12 July 82/1 Pretty but simple hair ornaments are true-lovers' knots of sequined gauze, very stiffly wired.
1932 L. E. Lawes 20,000 Years in Sing Sing iii. 74 The ‘cat’..was made of long strips of leather, attached to a stout wooden handle, and was not infrequently wired at the tips.
2004 Washington Post (Nexis) 1 Oct. (Style) c1 Skirts with hems wired to form a stiff circle.
d. transitive. To provide with (barbed) wire for protection. Also intransitive: to construct a barbed wire entanglement.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > barricade > [verb (transitive)] > protect with (barbed) wire
wire1881
1881 Mrs. 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.
1917 Blackwood's Mag. May 737/2 Every night parties sallied forth, some to wire, others to repair the parapet.
2003 Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) (Nexis) 17 Apr. (Sports) c1 Start wiring the fences and digging the moats.
3. transitive. To catch or trap (an animal, esp. a hare) in a wire snare; cf. wire n.1 4. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > hunt [verb (transitive)] > trap
grina850
latchc1175
snarl1398
snarea1425
caltropc1440
trapa1500
attrap1524
gin1583
toil1592
springe1606
snickle1615
wire1749
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones I. iii. x. 211 He said that George had wired Hares. View more context for this quotation
1771 E. Long Trial of Carter's Dog in W. Hone Every-day Bk. (1827) II. 207 A sturdy beggar! We must find out some means of wiring that fellow!
1798 R. Southey Sailor's Mother in Eng. Eclogues 110 But he was caught In wiring hares at last.
1836 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker 1st Ser. xx Why, if he aint snared, Sam; he is properly wired, I declare.
1851 H. Newland Erne v. 136 I recollect wiring a great lumping chubb once. I caught him asleep.
1880 Harper's Mag. June 75/1 With golden slipping loop and pole and cautious creep, we wired those lazy, unsuspecting ‘suckers’ on the gravelly bed below!
1909 O. Jones Ten Years of Game-keeping 242 A wire set by a highly respected labourer, who had the privilege to wire rabbits with a view to keep them down.
1987 Nineteenth-Cent. Lit. 42 147 Black George is judged falsely for wiring hares.
†4. transitive. Veterinary Medicine. To cause (a horse) to become abnormally narrowed or contracted in the heel. Also intransitive with in: to become so narrowed or contracted. Cf. wire heel n. at wire n.1 Compounds 2a and wired adj. 3. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of horses > cause injury or disease of horse [verb (transitive)] > disorders of feet or hooves
founder1593
gravel1593
dry-founder1619
grease1737
wire1753
the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of horses > of horse: have disorder [verb (intransitive)] > disorders of feet or hooves
gravel1593
grease1737
scratch1737
wire1831
1753 J. Bartlet Gentleman's Farriery xxxviii. 287 This turns them narrow above, wires their heels, and dries..the frog.
1831 W. Youatt Horse xvi. 293 Many persons reject a horse..if the quarters are wiring in.
†5. intransitive. slang. To engage in pickpocketing. Also transitive: to pick the pocket of (a person). Cf. wire n.1 19. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > picking pockets > pick pockets [verb (intransitive)]
figc1555
nip1592
dive1699
file1699
pickpocket1822
wire1853
dip1857
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > picking pockets > pick pockets [verb (transitive)] > pick the pocket of
buzz1819
wire1853
1853 M. Carpenter Juvenile Delinquents i. 40 There are..at least ten times as many boys ‘wiring’ (picking pockets) as when I was young.
1853 M. Carpenter Juvenile Delinquents iv. 145 If he was bigger he could wire a man of his poke.
6.
a. transitive. colloquial. To send (a message) electronically, esp. by telegraph (cf. telegraph v. 2a). Also: to send (a person) an electronic message, esp. a telegram (cf. telegraph v. 2c). Cf. wire n.1 9b(b).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > telegraph [verb (intransitive)]
telegraph1807
wire1859
cable1871
telegram1876
cablegraph1887
marconigraph1902
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > telegraph a message [verb (transitive)]
telegraph1806
flash1847
retelegraph1848
wire1859
telegram1864
cable1871
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > telegraph a message [verb (transitive)] > telegraph a person
wire1859
telegram1860
cable1871
marconigraph1907
1859 Edinb. 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’.
1863 E. Dicey Six Months in Federal States 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.
1925 Amer. Mercury May 62/2 A photograph of him reclining in a porcelain bath tub will be wired gratis to his home in the sticks.
1971 P. Berton Last Spike viii. ii. 345 He wired Dewdney in February urging that a surveyor be sent out at once.
2001 Business Week 23 July 78/2 With remote monitoring technology, the information can be wired to headquarters and plugged into enterprise-resource planning, or ERP, systems.
b. intransitive. To send a message by telegraph. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1883 D. C. Murray Hearts I. xii. 302 I want you to wire to Tom and demand the truth about the matter.
1919 M. Mitchell Let. 15 Nov. in M. Mitchell Lett. to Allen Edee (1985) 48 I have specialed, wired, and sent night letters but have received absolutely no answer.
1927 E. Waugh Diaries (1979) 275 I..have to wire for funds to my bank.
1958 J. Cannan And be Villain i. 15 Ah, the Victorian railways!..the luncheon baskets you wired ahead for.
1971 ‘A. Burgess’ MF xix. 208 I still had no money but I could wire for some.
c. transitive. Originally U.S. To send (funds) by means of a wire transfer.
ΚΠ
1890 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 16 July He wired the money from Chicago to the banks to pay them.
1932 H. Miller Let. 28 Mar. in A. Nin & H. Miller Literate Passion (1989) 42 I must wait in London..until June wires me money.
1974 F. Forsyth Dogs of War (1975) ii. x. 165 By noon Mr Goossens had seen the telex, and wired £5000 to Mr Brown's account.
2000 R. Bingham Lightning on Sun 152 ‘Sweetheart, I love you. Wire the money.’ ‘I don't have a bank account.’.. ‘Can't you Western Union it?’
7. intransitive. colloquial and regional. to wire in (also †away): to apply oneself energetically to something, to get to work with a will; spec. to set about a meal with avidity, ‘tuck in’. Also to wire into (a meal, etc.). Now chiefly Scottish. [Origin uncertain; compare:
1874 Hotten's Slang Dict. (rev. ed.) 341 Wire-in, a London street phrase in general use, which means to go in with a will. In its original form of ‘wire-in, and get your name up’, it was very popular among London professional athletes. The phrase is now general, and any one with a hard task before him, knows he must wire-in to bring matters to a successful issue.
]
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > undertaking > beginning action or activity > begin action or activity [verb (intransitive)] > resolutely or energetically
to go to it1490
busklea1535
settle1576
to lay on1587
to put in (also get into) one's gearsa1658
to put (occasionally lay, set) one's shoulder to the wheel1678
yark1721
to get going1822
to pitch in1835
to roll up one's sleeves1838
square1849
to clap on1850
to wire in (also away)1864
to dig in1884
hunker1903
tie into1904
to get cracking1937
to get stuck in1938
to get weaving1942
to get it on1954
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > processes or manners of eating > eat via specific process [verb (transitive)] > eat heartily
twist1694
nyam1790
to wire into1894
1864 J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed.) Wire-in, a London street phrase in general use at the present time.
1870 Daily News 16 Apr. We were politely told by Sandy to ‘wire in’—digger's phraseology for an invitation to commence.
1888 Fortn. 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.
1894 J. D. Astley Fifty Years of my Life II. 252 After wiring into a leg of mutton and rice-pudding, [I] turned into a..welcome bed.
1910 P. W. Joyce Eng. as we speak it in Ireland 351 To wire in is to begin work vigorously: to join in a fight.
1977 J. Boyle Sense of Freedom 4 By the time the fire got going, breakfast would be ready so we would all sit around the table and wire in.
1990 A. Spence Magic Flute 15 A wee jam session. Bye Bye Blackbird it was... We were wiring right into it. Giving it big licks.
1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 347/1 Wire into, to get on with, energetically.
8. transitive. Croquet. To position (a ball) so that the leg of a hoop intervenes between it and its target. Also: to disadvantage (oneself or an opponent) in this way. Usually in passive.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > croquet > play croquet [verb (transitive)] > types of play or stroke
croquet1858
roquet1859
run1863
spoon1865
wire1866
to get the rush (on a ball)1868
rush1868
to peg out1869
cut1874
split1877
peel1914
1866 Croquet: Implem. & Laws 10 A ball is Wired when it cannot effect the stroke desired on account of the leg of a hoop (wire) intervening.
1868 W. 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.
1874 J. D. Heath Compl. 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’.
1904 E. F. Benson Challoners i Helen was standing close by her brother in the proud calm consciousness of having wired him with complete success.
1920 Times 13 Aug. 5/3 The poor wretch who thought he had successfully ‘wired’ himself at croquet.
?1995 J. Riches Croquet 44 The first diagram shows a situation where red has wired the opponent's balls at the peg.
9.
a. transitive. To provide 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. Cf. wiring n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > investigation, inspection > secret observation, spying > electronic espionage > install or use device [verb (transitive)]
wire1890
wiretap1918
bug1958
Watergate1973
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > transmission of electricity, conduction > wire as conductor > furnish with wires [verb (transitive)]
wire1890
1890 Electr. Engineer 3 Jan. 18/1 Provided we see that our houses are well wired,..we may consider ourselves perfectly safe, and switch on our lamps with an easy conscience.
1891 E. I. Bax Pop. Electr. Lighting iv. 27 To admit of this the expense of wiring the room will have to be increased.
1898 Daily News 27 Aug. 6/4 Nearly every street of importance had been wired.
1923 Wireless World 19 May 205/2 It is preferable to wire the valve panel before fixing it to the baseboard.
1960 Pract. Wireless 36 393/1 The heater circuit is best wired first, leads being run close against the chassis.
1978 S. Brill Teamsters iv. 144 The prosecutor wired Henderson's phone so that there would be tapes of Faugno and Andretta threatening him.
1982 Sci. Amer. Sept. 68/2 The explosive charge is wired with electric blasting caps and detonated from a safe distance.
1983 J. Fuller Convergence xxx. 303 Just tell the truth... We have to wire you up.
1990 M. Levine Deep Cover vi. 156 Because no one thought to wire the phone, we lost those conversations.
2004 G. Woodward I'll go to Bed at Noon viii. 150 He thought of wiring up a door-bell to ring softly in the kitchen.
b. transitive. To incorporate (a device, function, or facility) into (or in) something by electric wiring or electronic connections. Cf. wired-in adj. 2.
ΚΠ
1933 Sci. News Let. 24 156/3 These lamps may be wired into the ordinary 110 volt electric light circuits and are small enough to be concealed in a hidden fixture.
1967 F. J. Cook Plot against Patient i. 12 Electronic pacemakers are wired into the heart itself to regulate the heartbeat and avoid the once-fatal heart block.
1993 R. Lowe & W. Shaw Travellers 2 He'll wire in a regulator box and a warning light, maybe, he thinks, even a voltage gauge, hitch it up to a battery and off he can go.
1996 H. G. Cragon Memory Syst. & Pipelined Processors ii. 98 Prefetch mechanisms are wired into the processor and perform their function without software interaction.
2000 Times 12 Jan. i. 20/1 The mouse is, of course, the little grey gofer wired into my computer which..dutifully carries out the little humdrum tasks which are its lot in life.
10. In extended use.
a. transitive. To furnish or equip with a certain natural ability or predilection. Frequently in passive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > be capable of [verb (transitive)] > enable or capacitate > endow with any ability
endowa1420
endue1447
wire1987
1964 M. McLuhan Understanding Media ii. xi. 112 Subrational beings have no..proportion in their sense lives but are wired for fixed wave lengths.
1986 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 30 Nov. 61/1 Apart from being wired to kill, one species of shark has a nose that can detect one part of tuna juice in 25 million parts of seawater.
1987 Washington Post 11 Jan. c3 All it requires is the assumption that God wired people in ways that make it easier to do mainstream economics.
2004 J. R. Page Blessed Event x. 101 She said you'd be a great mom, that you were wired for it.
b. transitive. colloquial. Usually with up. To cause (a person) to become tense, nervously excited, or energetic; (also, of a drug) to intoxicate. Cf. wired adj. 6b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > excitement > nervous excitement > tension > put into a state of tension [verb (transitive)]
to wind up1602
winda1635
strain1667
string1860
tensify1869
wire1974
1974 M. Isyurhash & G. Rusoff Gourmet Guide to Grass ii. 17 When smoked, good shit will wire one up for thirty minutes to five hours.
1983 L. G. Stenzel Vacation from Worry 22 If he's already tired the pills do help him sleep, but if he's real nervous about something they just wire him up more.
1987 T. 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.
2004 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) (Nexis) 4 Jan. i. 20 A 15-hour bus ride can do two things..tire you out or wire you up.
2007 S. Davis High Infatuation vii. 108 Daylight wires me like a drug. There will be all winter to rest.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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