wire1 nounwire2 verb
wirewire1 /waɪə $ waɪr/ ●●● S2 W3 noun 
WORD ORIGINwire1
Origin:
Old English wirEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- wire reports
- The cable is made of many twisted strands of wire.
- A low-powered electric bulb hung starkly from a wire overhead.
- But all these things somehow had their centre inside the wire.
- Pumps go with pipes, furnaces go with air-conditioners, switches go with wires.
- So this year, to be on the safe side, she had ordered a roll of chicken wire and metal stakes.
- When the wires fell, they ignited the gas leaking from the main.
WORD SETS
alternator, nounarc, nounblow, verbcapacitor, nouncathode, nouncell, nouncharge, nouncharge, verbcharger, nouncircuit, nouncircuit board, nouncircuit breaker, nouncircuitry, nouncoil, nouncondenser, nounconnection, nouncontact, nouncord, nouncordless, adjectivecurrent, nounDC, dimmer, noundirect current, noundischarge, verbdischarge, nounE, earth, nounearth, verbelectric, adjectiveelectrician, nounelectricity, nounelectrics, nounelectrode, nounelectronic, adjectiveelectronics, nounfuel cell, nounfuse, verbfuse box, nounfused, adjectivegrid, nounlive, adjectivelive wire, nounmagic eye, nounmagneto, nounnegative, adjectiveneutral, adjectivenoise, nounoscillate, verboscillator, nounoutlet, nounphotoelectric, adjectivephotoelectric cell, nounpin, nounplug, nounpoint, nounpre-set, adjectiveprinted circuit, nounprogramme, nounprogramme, verbpulse, nounremote control, nounresistance, nounresistor, nounscan, verbscanner, nounshort, nounshort, verbshort circuit, nounshort-circuit, verbsocket, nounsolid-state, adjectivesonar, nounsuperconductivity, nounsuperconductor, nounterminal, nountime switch, nountoggle switch, nountorch, nountransformer, nountransistor, nounvacuum tube, nounvalve, nounW, wire, nounwiring, nounzapper, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYADJECTIVES/NOUN + wire
A loop of wire held the gate shut.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
· Use a piece of fine wire to clear the obstruction.
· Curtains hung from a thick wire.
· Electrical impulses are sent down the copper wire.
(=wire with a lot of sharp points on it, used for making fences)· The prison was surrounded by barbed wire.
wire + NOUN· We drew up outside a compound surrounded by a wire fence.
· Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
phrases· The pieces of wire he’d cut were too short.
· The coil of barbed wire will be used for a fence.
· There is no latch or knob – just a loop of wire that goes over a nail.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES A loop of wire held the gate shut.· I put up an entirely illegal barbed wire fence.· Given the ferocious imagination of his subconscious, it's hardly surprising that his celluloid output is laced with lethal barbed wire.· If he told her the fence would be best in barbed wire she'd believe him.· On the other side of the double row of barbed wire a guard was standing still holding his rifle at the ready.· She had driven slowly forward to the yellow demarcation line and the frightening folds of barbed wire.· Creepers grew on the walls; deciduous, they stretched out their bare stems in a complicated network like barbed wire.· You may not, however, top your wall with broken glass or barbed wire without the consent of your local authority.· The courthouse itself was protected by barbed wire and ringed with police.
· Strands of copper wire, source identified.· The one-tenth-inch wide strand had a nylon fiber core called Nomex, surrounded by the strands of copper wire.· To obtain the tensions, we resort to the copper wire again and make up rectangular loops which are sealed by soldering.· Airey houses, for example, were built with concrete planks fixed with copper wire to vertical reinforced concrete columns.· Soil deformation during a quake could bend pipelines as though they were strands of copper wire.· This should be compared with systems in which the signal is sent direct to the receiver for example, along a copper wire.· The channel of communication is the copper wire which carries the electrical signals and runs to the distant end.· If you can wear an earthed wrist strap or, at least, a piece of copper wire clipped to the ground plane.
· An electrical wire is inserted into the heart, which is then stimulated electronically and the reaction is studied.· Automobile manufacturing is one of the top sources of demand for copper, after construction and electrical wire.· It is probable that one of the electrical wires had had its insulation damaged.· The wiry Estrada flashes a partially capped smile as she gratefully recalls her first maquila job twisting electrical wires with latex-tipped fingers.· Always check for electrical wires and eater pipes with a pipe and cable detector before drilling walls, floors and ceilings.· They live under high-voltage electrical wire.· Tom left them, twined about with electrical wires, to set up their speakers and woofers and tweeters.· Associates was looking for ways to expand its business of making a Teflon-coated electrical wire.
· They consist of a copper core, which carries the signal, surrounded by a braided mesh of fine copper wire.· Now suppose that two fine metal wires run along the sides of the skyhook cable.· Beneath this lies the most splendid embalmed St Justin in his contemporary costume with fine wire work and embroidery.· Microelectrodes are fine wires about the thickness of a hair.· It works best with a large fine wire hook.· Or they may be fine metal wires intended simply to record the electrical activity occurring in the cells in their vicinity.· Imagine a fine wire which is too far away and too thin to see by any ordinary means.
· It was designed as a safety net, but in many respects it has now become a high wire for farmers.· Oliver tied the team to a stump and led her across as if it were as dangerous as a high wire.· The style was different to ours: they'd used mild steel netting instead of high-tensile wires.· Like Karl Wallenda in his prime, they walk the high wire with no fear of falling.· The ball flew high and wide of Judy and over the high wire fence behind her.· Skinny tightrope walkers, feet weighted with fishing sinkers, traversed the high wire.· This fence consists of ten live high-tensile wires and four strands of barb, so the posts are quite long.· Below Manescu saw a complex of concrete buildings and a circular tower block surrounded by a high wire fence.
· The instruments work using a hot wire internally.· He bootlegged whiskey, pumped gas, worked in a steel mill handling hot wire, stole hubcaps.
· She's a real live wire. 2.· Estes' forehead brushed the live wire.· This college has come to life and advanced considerably under the direction of its very live wire Rector Mr Jocelyn Stevens.· Trading standards officers say the hot brush styler, made in the Far East has faulty insulation which has exposed live wires.· The whole machine was acting like a live electric wire.· It overheated and melted the plastic cover. Live wires were exposed.· Yet a kind of current emanated from her, she was like a live wire.
· Blue skies are criss-crossed with a network of overhead wires.· And that headdress would get caught up in the overhead wires, you silly boy.· Doing the overhead wires and lines.· They demanded bracket construction for the overhead wires, but this was turned down for the same reasons as those in Mitcham.· This means that there is always a third rail or an overhead wire carrying an enormously high electric current.· They picked up power from a spider's web of unsightly overhead wires.· If electric, the tramway was to be worked by overhead wire or slot conduit systems.· The Unimog used for inspecting the overhead wire, can travel on road or rails.
· Yes, I knelt in fear, and my skin lived on thin wire, this side of a profound shudder.
NOUN· Ivy, candles and fruit arranged in a wire basket make a sumptuous centrepiece.· Gabians are large wire baskets filled with rocks and linked together.· In practice, spray containers are laid in a wire basket inside a sealed container.· He held a wire basket with a modest stack of provisions.· He had a wire basket in his left hand, in which he had placed two tins of pineapple cubes.· She took the loaded wire basket to the outlet, paid, filled her carrier bags, and went homewards by Underground.
· If the flashing looks sound but is obviously porous, clean the surface thoroughly with a wire brush.· Keep a wire brush handy for this purpose and rub down the grill after finishing your cooking.· Action with a scraper and wire brush, using manual labour, would give the desired result.· Lightly sand scratches and chips with fine wet-and-dry paper, and remove all traces of rust with small wire brush.· We would imagine that the wire brush is very handy for cleaning up old iron and steel.· The inside of the fitting should be brushed out with a special wire brush and rubbed with wire wool.
· After much midnight hammering, a large wooden frame, covered in chicken wire with a drop down door was constructed.· So this year, to be on the safe side, she had ordered a roll of chicken wire and metal stakes.· Already he's spent more than £100 on chicken wire and spent hours collecting up the various fillings.· Staplegun chicken wire to the walls, slap stucco on top.· Derek and I built the aviary between us out of ordinary three by three timber and chicken wire.· The church was built of brick and chicken wire.· To reduce slippage, tack coarse-gauge chicken wire flush to the deck.· They would search the woods behind the house, and Nockerd would tack the chicken wire tighter around the cage.
· Eric Dodd set down his wire cutters and leather gloves.· The other had contained a jemmy, cans of spray paint, wire cutters, a brace and bit, and shears.· Police had to use wire cutters to move on the protestors.· He says some one with a screwdriver or wire cutters could take the picture and walk out of the door.
· I put up an entirely illegal barbed wire fence.· Caught in a barbed wire fence.· Exhorting him to breathe deeply they paraded him up and down beside the wire fence.· And when that wire fence tears through those little babies fall through and die.· On either side of the well-guarded checkpoint stretched wire fences, barbed-wire entanglements and minefields.· The aroma of fish and bread will drift over the hungry children standing behind the barbed wire fence, watching, waiting.· The ball flew high and wide of Judy and over the high wire fence behind her.· He was doing wheelies on a steep bank with a wire fence at the top.
· Gould was eventually caught last year, and pleaded guilty to 51 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering.· Caserta, 56, pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud and conspiracy.
· The paper support for this is a flimsy piece of plastic, and a wire loop.· Pick up the web on this card, as with the wire loop.
· These cars had Wilson & Bennett wire mesh lifeguards.· There was an iron bed, a small table and chair, a double-pane window reinforced with wire mesh.· I was standing with my back to the aviary, my jacket almost touching the wire mesh, still puzzled.· Strain through a wire mesh sieve.· There was a wire mesh roof over it lower than in the Cages and some fish and meat.· The screens were of ordinary wire mesh.· This time it was a piece of wire mesh on a metal rod.· There was no stairhead lamp and the wire mesh screens were of the Brush standard design.
· Joseph's father was reinforcing the posts that held up the wire netting around the tennis court.· Openings covered with wire netting revealed a shadowy abyss.· As soon as they are replaced they are broken again and the church authorities are considering wire netting as a protection.· It blows debris into the net and it tightens the net rather like wire netting and decreases its catching power.· Wire netting Crumple up wire netting into a ball and push into a container.· You can also use a circle of wire netting, shaped like a mound, to cover the top of the container.
· He stays up until the early hours devouring the news wires.· Stock and bond markets, already weak, fell further after the pessimistic comments were carried on news wires.· When those remarks went out over the news wires, sales shot up further.· The government does not own or substantially regulate newspapers, radio or television stations, or news wire services.· On January 30, 1993, news of an unusual incident crossed the Associated Press news wire.
· Place the frozen truffles on a wire rack over a baking sheet.· Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack.· Run a blunt knife around the inside edge of the tin and turn out the cake on to a wire rack to cool.· Remove from baking sheet to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.· Turn out on to wire rack. 3.· Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely on wire rack.· Leave the florentines on a wire rack to set.· Place ginger on a wire rack to dry for at least an hour.
· The following day 20 protesters climbed back over the razor wire.· The inmates are held in a compound encircled by razor wire.· The high grey wall has a lip trimmed with razor wire.· The gear is protected by a cyclone fence topped with razor wire.· There were fences with spirals of razor wire on top.· They gazed into my torch beam like cons caught in razor wire.
· I'd seen him around at one or two private parties given by wire service operators and gamblers.· Her sketches are familiar to New Yorkers and have appeared on networks, newspapers and the wire services.· The wire services demanded language stripped of the local, the regional, and the colloquial....· This story was supplemented by wire service material.· The government does not own or substantially regulate newspapers, radio or television stations, or news wire services.· New York Times, wire services, I could have called them but I called you.· The wire services are now reporting the fire, and the writers and editors are reading the copy.· Chronicle wire services contributed to this report.
· Glancing up, I saw a beautiful yellow bird perched on a telegraph wire, looking like a prize long-tailed canary.· Immediately afterwards, she listens enraptured to the almost musical sound of the telegraph wires that only she is capable of hearing.· The rain is sheeting across the horizon like ripped dustbin liners caught on a telegraph wire.· Popularization of news was accelerated in the 1 840s with the introduction of telegraph wire services.· And there was the railway, with its shining lines, telegraph wires and posts, and signals.· And soon the word was crackling over the telegraph wires to all parts of the North.
· Still embedded high on a rock is a tangle of telephone wires and a ceramic insulator.· In summer, we sit on the porch Like birds on a telephone wire.· The thieves cut her telephone wires and took the money she was saving for a cooker.· He said he could feel the vibrations of my enthusiasm over the telephone wires.· The telephone wires have been cut, the sockets torn from the wall.· Latency is friction in telephone wires that can cause delays in the response time of action gaming.· A police station adjacent to the jail was simultaneously attacked by the rebels, its occupants disarmed and its telephone wires severed.
· They are looking at some wire wool that has rusted.· She felt a wire wool of beard on her chin, and realised she was seeing the world two-dimensionally.· The more stubborn food particles can be removed by gentle scrubbing with wire wool.· Before you replace it, clean the two pipe ends thoroughly with wire wool, then brush on flux.· She chose the cooker and began to scrape its insides with wire wool.· The inside of the fitting should be brushed out with a special wire brush and rubbed with wire wool.
VERB· Use a similar hooked connection to attach the Earth wire and the wire leading from S1 to the solder tag.· In the 1980s mechanical hearts were attached by wires and tubes to machinery outside the body.· An oval drill head was attached to a flexible wire and threaded into a blood vessel in his leg.· A curl of green pressed powder was burning on the table, attached to a wire stand.· The Thing didn't have to be attached to any wires.· The 1M potentiometer should be prepared by attaching short wires to the centre and one of its outer terminals.
· Prepare the solenoid valve connecting wire.· Born in late August, some 15 weeks premature, he spent his 10-week life connected to tubes and wires.· Remove the voltage regulator box and connect the large wires A, A1 and D together.· Because all controls and control units are connected by flexible wires, controls can be grouped conveniently around the handles.· Chakras connected by copper wire leading to the head of the idol.
· Closer examination showed these to have been cut, about 12 wires in all.· One of the commonest mistakes is attempting to cut with too much wire inside the papilla, partly for fear of displacing the wire.· The thieves cut her telephone wires and took the money she was saving for a cooker.· Anyone who cuts the wire with the necessary intent and knowledge would be guilty of murder.· The strength in his own sinews cuts the wire into the flesh round his mouth.
· This leaves long parallel striations running along the wire.· The two doctors bared its chest and ran wires from the battery to the bone above the heart.· Then he ran off with the wire, not out of the gate, but round to the front of the house.· Oswald ran past the chicken wire, turned into the cell block, stopped at the white line.
· John twisted soft iron wire around some thick dowelling, whittled to a taper, to make candleholders.· The wiry Estrada flashes a partially capped smile as she gratefully recalls her first maquila job twisting electrical wires with latex-tipped fingers.· He'd spent a long time twisting bits of wire together and finding a safe way to steal electricity from the fusebox.· Why not make the rope out of twisted wire?· The muscles in her neck felt as hard and twisted as wire rope.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- We got our wires crossed and I waited for an hour in the wrong place.
- Somewhere along the line, some one had got their wires crossed, that much was clear.
- We were in a couple of games that went right down to the wire.
- In the event the starting line-up went down to the wire.
- It is down to the wire.
- Take the walk along the Humber Bridge with the wind nagging the high-tension cables.
- The Kinner field almost qualified; it had two sets of high-tension wires on its eastern perimeter.
WORD FAMILYnounwirewirelesswiringadjectivewirywiredwirelessverbwire
1[countable, uncountable] thin metal in the form of a thread, or a piece of this: copper wire a wire fence → barbed wire, high wire, tripwire2[countable] a piece of metal like this, used for carrying electrical currents or signals: a telephone wire3get your wires crossed to become confused about what someone is saying because you think they are talking about something else4go/come/be down to the wire informal especially American English to be finished or achieved with very little time left: The game was very close and went right down to the wire.5[countable] American English a piece of electronic recording equipment, usually worn secretly on someone’s clothes6[countable] American English a telegramCOLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + wirefine/thin· Use a piece of fine wire to clear the obstruction.thick· Curtains hung from a thick wire.copper/steel wire· Electrical impulses are sent down the copper wire.barbed wire (=wire with a lot of sharp points on it, used for making fences)· The prison was surrounded by barbed wire.wire + NOUNa wire fence· We drew up outside a compound surrounded by a wire fence.a wire rack· Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.phrasesa piece/length/strand of wire· The pieces of wire he’d cut were too short.a coil of wire· The coil of barbed wire will be used for a fence.a loop of wire· There is no latch or knob – just a loop of wire that goes over a nail.wire1 nounwire2 verb
wirewire2 ●○○ verb [transitive] VERB TABLE
wire
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | wire |
| he, she, it | wires | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | wired |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have wired |
| he, she, it | has wired | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had wired |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will wire |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have wired |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am wiring |
| he, she, it | is wiring | |
| you, we, they | are wiring | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was wiring |
| you, we, they | were wiring | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been wiring |
| he, she, it | has been wiring | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been wiring |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be wiring |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been wiring |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Bud wired the CD player up to the cigarette lighter in his car.
- Could you wire me $50?
- The electrician is coming to wire the house tomorrow.
- Tracy had to have her jaw wired shut.
- Satellite customers who are wired for cable sometimes keep the service to get local channels.
- Sooner or later most workers will be wired, and another moderator of inflation will then have been exhausted also.
- The businessman was then wired with a listening device and given $ 30, 000 to offer Mr Tucker.
- They are very data conscious now and more wired into productivity, quality, the importance of training, and customer service.
- This latter method is often a good way of wiring outside lights.
- We strap on the goggles and headphones which are wired up to what looks like a drum machine.
WORD SETS
answer, nounanswering machine, nounarea code, nounbeeper, nounbleep, verbbleeper, nounbusy, adjectivecable, nouncable, verbcall box, nouncaller, nounCATV, cell, nouncellphone, nouncellular phone, nounchat line, nouncode, nounconference call, nounconferencing, nounconnect, verbcradle, nouncrossed, adjectivedead, adjectivedial, noundial, verbdialling code, noundialling tone, noundial tone, noundirectory enquiries, noundisconnect, verbearpiece, nounECN, nounEntryphone, nounex-directory, adjectiveext., extension, nounfacsimile, nounFreephone, nounGSM, nounhelpline, nounhotline, nounhousephone, nounline, nounlocal call, nounmayday, nounmobile, nounmobile phone, nounMorse code, nounmouthpiece, nounnumber, nounon, prepositionoperator, nounpay phone, nounphone book, nounphone booth, nounphone box, nounphonecard, nounradio-telephone, nounreceiver, nounredial, verbring, verbscrambler, nounsecond-generation, adjectiveSOS, nounswitchboard, nountelecottage, nountelegram, nountelegraph, nountelegraph, verbtelegrapher, nountelegraphist, nountelegraph pole, nountelemarketing, nountelematics, nountelephone, nountelephone, verbtelephone book, nountelephone box, nountelephone call, nountelephone directory, nountelephone exchange, nountelephone number, nountelephone pole, nountelephonist, nounteleprinter, nounteletypewriter, nountelex, nounthird-generation, adjectivethrough, prepositiontoll-free, adverbTouch-Tone phone, nountrace, nountriple play, nountrunk call, noununlisted, adjectiveutility pole, nounvideophone, nounvoice mail, nounWi-Fi, nounwire, nounwire, verbwireless internet, wiretapping, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES A loop of wire held the gate shut.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB
A loop of wire held the gate shut.· The creatures are wired together in various degrees of connectance by food webs and by smells and vision.
· Soldiers set up barbed-wire fences, electricians wired up searchlights, carpenters built barracks and sentry boxes on elevated platforms.· These were people who were wired up wrong.· Through the gap in the fence, I suppose, the place I didn't wire up.· One Systern now being scrutinized is absolutely essential for the proper wiring up of neurons in the brain of the developing fetus.· Lighting circuits are wired up in one of two ways.· After wiring up the Xmas tree lights and programming the computer, even managed the washing up!· Power circuits on a modern installation are also wired up in one of two ways, as ring or radical circuits.· Mr Whittaker will wire up your place to one of his alarms.
NOUN· In a 21st-century society wired into instantaneous networks, marketing is the mirror; the collective consumer is the chameleon.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- All the rooms are wired for cable TV.
- Deion sneaked up behind the announcer, who was wired for sound, and doused him with ice water.
- Of schools with large numbers of poor students, just 31 percent of schools were wired for the Internet.
- Satellite customers who are wired for cable sometimes keep the service to get local channels.
- Venice is to be wired for sound.
- Take the walk along the Humber Bridge with the wind nagging the high-tension cables.
- The Kinner field almost qualified; it had two sets of high-tension wires on its eastern perimeter.
WORD FAMILYnounwirewirelesswiringadjectivewirywiredwirelessverbwire
1 (also wire up) a)to connect wires inside a building or piece of equipment so that electricity can pass through: Check that the plug has been wired up properly. b)to connect electrical equipment to the electrical system using wireswire something to something The CD player had been wired up to the car’s cigarette lighter.2to send money electronically3to attach a piece of recording equipment to a person or room, especially secretly4be wired for something to have all the necessary wires and connections for an electrical system to work: All the rooms have been wired for cable TV.5American English to send a telegram to someone6to fasten two or more things together using wirewire something together The poles had all been wired together. → wiring