wire

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A usually pliable metallic strand or rod made in many lengths and diameters, sometimes clad and often electrically insulated, used chiefly for structural support or to conduct electricity.
2. n. A group of wire strands bundled or twisted together as a functional unit; cable.
3. n. Something resembling a wire, as in slenderness or stiffness.
4. n. An open telephone connection.
5. n. Slang A hidden microphone, as on a person's body or in a building.
6. n. A telegraph service.
7. n. A telegram or cablegram.
8. n. A wire service.
9. n. Computer Science A pin in the print head of a computer printer.
10. n. The screen on which sheets of paper are formed in a papermaking machine.
11. n. Sports The finish line of a racetrack.
12. n. The system of strings employed in manipulating puppets in a show.
13. n. Hidden controlling influences.
14. n. Slang A pickpocket.
15. n. Fencing made of usually barbed wire.
16. v. To bind, connect, or attach with wires or a wire.
17. v. To string (beads, for example) on wire.
18. v. To equip with a system of electrical wires.
19. v. Slang To install electronic eavesdropping equipment in (a room, for example).
20. v. To send by telegraph: wired her congratulations.
21. v. To send a telegram to.
22. v. Computer Science To implement (a capability) through logic circuitry that is permanently connected within a computer or calculator and therefore not subject to change by programming.
23. v. To determine or put into effect by physiological or neurological mechanisms; hard-wire: "It is plausible that the basic organization of grammar is wired into the child's brain” ( Steven Pinker).
24. v. To send a telegram.
25. idiom. down to the wire Informal To the very end, as in a race or contest.
26. idiom. under the wire Sports At the finish line.
27. idiom. under the wire Informal Just in the nick of time; at the last moment.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In paper-making, a general term for the woven brass wire-cloth used in a Fourdrinier or paper-making machine.
2. n. By derivation from this, an annealed wire of size and weight suitable for weaving into nettings, wire-cloth, and the like.
3. n. An extremely elongated body of elastic material; specifically, a slender bar of metal, commonly circular in section, from the size which can be bent by the hand with some difficulty down to a fine thread. Wire was originally made by hammering, a sort of groove in the anvil serving to determine the size. It is now drawn by powerful machinery, and passed through a series of holes constantly diminishing in size. Wire of square section, flat like a tape, etc., is also made.
4. n. A twisted thread; a filament.
5. n. A quantity of wire used for various purposes, especially in electric transmission, as in case of the telephone, the telegraph, electric lighting, etc.; specifically, a telegraph-wire, and hence (colloquially) the telegraph system itself: as, to send orders by wire.
6. n. A metallic string of a musical instrument; hence, poetically, the instrument itself.
7. n. The lash; the scourge: alluding to the use of metallic whips.
8. n. In ornithology, one of the extremely long, slender, wire-like filaments or shafts of the plumage of various birds. See wired, wire-tailed, and cut under Videstrdda.
9. n. plural Figuratively, that by which any organization or body of persons is controlled and directed: now used chiefly in political slang. See wire-pulling.
10. n. A pickpocket with long fingers, expert at picking women's pockets.
11. n. A fiber of cobweb, a fine platinum wire, or a line upon glass, fixed in the focus of a telescope, to aid in comparing the positions of objects.
12. Made of wire; consisting of or fitted with wires: as, a wire sieve; a wire bird-cage.
13. In electricity, a kind of Wheatstone bridge in which two adjacent resistances are formed by a wire which can be divided in any ratio by means of a sliding contact and a graduated scale.
14. To bind, fit, or otherwise provide with wire; put wire in, on, around, through, etc.: as, to wire corks in bottling liquors; to wire beads; to wire a fence; to wire a bird-skin, as in taxidermy; to wire a house for electric lighting.
15. To snare by means of a wire: as, to wire a bird.
16. To send through a telegraphic wire; send by telegraph, as a message; telegraph: as, wire a reply.
17. To be wound or bound about like wire; encircle.
18. In surgery, to maintain the ends of (a fractured bone) in close apposition by means of wire passed through holes drilled in the bone.
19. To flow in currents as thin as wire.
20. To communicate by means of a telegraphic wire; telegraph.
21. n. A corruption of weir.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die.
2. n. A piece of such material; a thread or slender rod of metal, a cable
3. n. A metal conductor that carries electricity.
4. n. A fence made of usually barbed wire.
5. n. sports A finish line of a racetrack.
6. n. informal A telecommunication wire or cable; hence, an electric telegraph; a telegram
7. n. slang A hidden listening device on the person of an undercover operative for the purposes of obtaining incriminating spoken evidence.
8. n. informal A deadline or critical endpoint.
9. n. billiards A wire strung with beads and hung horizontally above or near the table which is used to keep score.
10. v. To fasten with wire, especially with reference to wine bottles, corks, or fencing.
11. v. To string on a wire.
12. v. To equip with wires for use with electricity.
13. v. To add something into an electrical system by means of wiring; to incorporate or include something.
14. v. informal To send a message or a money value to another person through a telecommunications system, formerly predominately by telegraph.
15. v. To make someone tense or psyched-up.
16. v. slang To install eavesdropping equipment.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A thread or slender rod of metal; a metallic substance formed to an even thread by being passed between grooved rollers, or drawn through holes in a plate of steel.
2. n. colloq. A telegraph wire or cable; hence, an electric telegraph.
3. n. (Chiefly Political Slang) The system of wires used to operate the puppets in a puppet show the network of hidden influences controlling the action of a person or organization; ; -- in this sense, synonymous with strings.
4. n. Thieves' Slang One who picks women's pockets.
5. n. Scot. A knitting needle.
6. n. Racing Cant A wire stretching across over a race track at the judges' stand, to mark the line at which the races end.
7. v. To bind with wire; to attach with wires; to apply wire to.
8. v. To put upon a wire.
9. v. To snare by means of a wire or wires.
10. v. colloq. To send (a message) by telegraph.
11. v. (Croquet) To place (a ball) so that the wire of a wicket prevents a successful shot.
12. v. to equip with a system of wiring, especially for supply of electrical power or communication.
13. v. to equip with an electronic system for eavesdropping; to bug.
14. v. rare To pass like a wire; to flow in a wirelike form, or in a tenuous stream.
15. v. colloq. To send a telegraphic message.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. send cables, wires, or telegrams
2. n. the finishing line on a racetrack
3. n. a message transmitted by telegraph
4. n. ligament made of metal and used to fasten things or make cages or fences etc
5. n. a metal conductor that carries electricity over a distance
6. v. equip for use with electricity
7. v. fasten with wire
8. v. provide with electrical circuits
9. v. string on a wire