Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - wire

(wires, wiring, wired) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A wire is a long thin piece of metal that is used to fasten things or to carry electric current. ...fine copper wire. ...gadgets which detect electrical wires, pipes and timbers in walls. N-VAR 2. A wire is a cable which carries power or signals from one place to another. I ripped out the telephone wire that ran through to his office. ...the voltage of the overhead wires. = cable N-COUNT: usu supp N 3. If you wire something such as a building or piece of equipment, you put wires inside it so that electricity or signals can pass into or through it. ...learning to wire and plumb the house herself... Each of the homes has a security system and is wired for cable television. ...a badly wired appliance. VERB: V n, be V-ed for n, V-ed • Wire up means the same as wire. He was helping wire up the Channel Tunnel last season... Wire the thermometers up to trigger off an alarm bell if the temperature drops... PHRASAL VERB: V P n (not pron), V n P 4. A wire is the same as a telegram. (mainly AM) N-COUNT 5. If you wire an amount of money to a person or place, you tell a bank to send it to the person or place using a telegram message. (mainly AM) I’m wiring you some money... They arranged to wire the money from the United States... VERB: V n n, V n prep 6. If something goes to the wire, it continues until the last possible moment. (mainly JOURNALISM) Negotiators again worked right down to the wire to reach an agreement. PHRASE 7. see also barbed wire, high wire, hot-wire, live wire