Word Finder - wires

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Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die.

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A piece of such material; a thread or slender rod of metal, a cable.

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A metal conductor that carries electricity.

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A fence made of usually barbed wire.

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A finish line of a racetrack.

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A telecommunication wire or cable

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(by extension) An electric telegraph; a telegram.

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A hidden listening device on the person of an undercover operative for the purposes of obtaining incriminating spoken evidence.

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A deadline or critical endpoint.

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This election is going to go right to the wire

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A wire strung with beads and hung horizontally above or near the table which is used to keep score.

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(usually in the plural) Any of the system of wires used to operate the puppets in a puppet show; hence, the network of hidden influences controlling the action of a person or organization; strings.

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to pull the wires for office

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(thieves' slang) A pickpocket who targets women.

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A covert signal sent between people cheating in a card game.

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A knitting needle.

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The slender shaft of the plumage of certain birds.

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To fasten with wire, especially with reference to wine bottles, corks, or fencing.

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We need to wire that hole in the fence.

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To string on a wire.

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wire beads

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To equip with wires for use with electricity.

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Do you know how to wire a plug?

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To add something into an electrical system by means of wiring; to incorporate or include something.

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I'll just wire your camera to the computer screen.

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(usually passive) To fix or predetermine (someone's personality or behaviour) in a particular way.

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There's no use trying to get Sarah to be less excitable. That's just the way she's wired.

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To send a message or monetary funds to another person through a telecommunications system, formerly predominantly by telegraph.

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The detective wired ahead, hoping that the fugitive would be caught at the railway station.

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To make someone tense or psyched up. See also adjective wired.

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Coffee late at night wires me good and proper.

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To install eavesdropping equipment.

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We wired the suspect's house.

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To snare by means of a wire or wires.

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To place (a ball) so that the wire of a wicket prevents a successful shot.

They were stuck in its wires.

The unmistakable snap of wires reached them, and the helicopter tilted.

As many as 1200 wires are sometimes enclosed in one lead pipe.

In 1902 the total length of wires strung was 28,125 m.; in 1906 it had been increased to 34,080 m.

Underwires are stiff wires inserted into a bra just under the cups.

They are placed at a distance apart less than the focal length of a, so that the wires of the micrometer, which must be distinctly seen, are beyond b.

Other astronomers use the two distance-measuring webs, placed at a convenient distance apart, for position wires.

If we could drive the engine so fast as to reduce C' to zero, the whole of the energy of the battery would be available, no heat being produced in the wires, but the horse-power of the engine would be indefinitely small.

This telegraph required six wires, and was shortly afterwards displaced by the single-needle system, still to a large extent used on railway and other less important circuits.

This system required two line wires, and, although a remarkably serviceable apparatus and in use for many years, is no longer employed.

The particular sizes and descriptions of wires used are dependent upon the character of the " circuits " the longer and more important circuits requiring the heavier wire.

Gutta-percha-covered copper wires were formerly largely used for the purpose of underground lines, the copper conductor weighing 40 lb per statute mile, and the gutta-percha covering 50 lb (90 lb total).

The paper cables consist of a number of wires, each enveloped in a loose covering of well-dried paper, and loosely laid up together with a slight spiral " lay " in a bundle, the whole being enclosed in a stout lead pipe.

It is essential that the paper covering be loose, so as to ensure that each wire is enclosed in a coating not of paper only, but also of air; the wires in fact are really insulated from each other by the dry air, the loose paper acting merely as a separator to prevent them from coming into contact.

In the British Postal Telegraph Department all the most important wires are tested every morning between 7.30 and 7.45 A.M., in sections of about 200 miles.

Sometimes the wires are covered with the compound alone, and the whole cable after being sheathed is finally covered with tarred tape.

The coils of the electromagnets are differentially wound with silk-covered wire, 4 mils (= 004 inch) in diameter, to a total resistance of 400 ohms. This differential winding enables the instrument to be used for " duplex " working, but the connexions of the wires to the terminal screws are such that the relay can be used for ordinary single working.

This slip is then passed through a transmitter fitted with brush contacts and connected to the two line wires of a metallic loop. One circuit is formed by the loop itself, and a second, quite independent, by the two wires in parallel, earthed at each end.

When there is no current the shutter covers the perforations and no light passes, but when a current traverses the wires they are depressed by electromagnetic action, carrying the shutter with them, and a quantity of light proportional to the current strength is admitted through the perforations.

So zealously was the work of improvement pursued that within little more than six years of the transfer the aggregate extent of road wires in the United Kingdom was already 63,000 m.

This involved a large extension of wires to cope with increased traffic. The reduced rate took effect as from the 1st of October 1886.

At each signalling station was erected an insulated metallic surface facing and near to the ordinary telegraph wires.

Hence, when the coil at one fixed station was in action it generated high frequency alternating currents, which were propagated across the air gap between the ordinary telegraph wires and the metallic surfaces attached to one secondary terminal of the induction coil, and conveyed along the ordinary telegraph wires between station and moving train.

Thus, in the case of one station and one moving railway carriage, there is a circuit consisting partly of the earth, partly of the ordinary telegraph wires at the side of the track, and partly of the circuits of the telephone receiver at one place and the secondary of the induction coil at the other, two air gaps existing in this circuit.

In practical wireless telegraphy the antenna is generally a collection of wires in fan shape upheld from one or more masts or wooden towers.

An exchange is a central station to which wires are brought from the various subscribers in its neighbourhood, any two of whom can be put in telephonic communication with each other when the proper pairs of wires are joined together in the exchange.

A system of wires, similar to that which connects the district exchanges in an area, links together the various local areas in the territory, and sometimes the territory of one administration with that of another.

An improvement was effected in this respect by the introduction of the " bridging " system, in which the bells possessing high inductance are placed in parallel between the two wires of the circuit.

When the relay is operated it connects a bell between one of the wires of the circuit and earth, while the bell itself is arranged to respond to current pulsations in one direction only.

In suburban and rural districts subscribers are usually served by means of bare wires erected upon wooden or iron poles.

In large towns telephone distribution by means of open wires is practically impossible, and the employment of cables either laid in the ground or suspended from poles or other overhead supports is necessary.

In the types of cable that were first used, the wires, usually with a cotton insulation, were drawn into lead tubes, and the tubes filled with paraffin or other similar compound, which kept the wires from the injurious effects of any moisture which might penetrate the lead tube.

The separate wires are surrounded only with a loose covering of specially prepared paper, which furnishes abundant insulation.

In the manufacture of the cable the wires are first enclosed in the paper, which is applied sometimes longitudinally and sometimes spirally.

Another method of distribution, largely adopted, is to run the lead cables into the interior of blocks of buildings, and to terminate them there in iron boxes from which the circuits are distributed to the surrounding buildings by means of rubber-covered wires run along the walls.

In this case the cables terminate upon the poles, the connexions between the cable wires and the open wires being made with rubber-covered leads.

The decision covered also future invention in regard to " every organized system of communication by means of wires according to any preconcerted system of signals."

The licences merely condoned the infringement of the Telegraph Act 1869, and did not confer powers to erect poles and wires on, or to place wires under, any highway or private property.

All limitations of areas were removed and licensees were allowed to open public call offices but not to receive or deliver written messages, and they were allowed to erect trunk wires.

The United Telephone Company asked parliament for rights of way in streets but was refused, and its only right to place overhead wires was obtained by private wayleaves.

The United Telephone Company again applied unsuccessfully for right to lay wires underground.

The application of the company for permission to lay wires in streets was again refused.

After the withdrawal of the restriction against the companies erecting trunk wires it became evident that the development of the telephone services throughout the country would be facilitated by complete intercommunication and uniformity of systems, and that economies could be effected by concentration of management.

The National Telephone Company applied to the London County Council for permission to lay wires underground and continued efforts till 1899 to obtain this power, but without success.

The National Telephone Company again applied to parliament for powers to lay wires underground; public discontent with inadequate telephone services was expressed, and at the same time the competition of the telephone with the Post Office telegraph became more manifest.

It compelled the companies to sell their trunk wires to the Post Office, leaving the local exchanges in the hands of the companies.

The National Telephone Company again applied to parliament for power to lay wires underground, but was refused.

Local authorities (particularly London and Glasgow) refused to permit the company to lay wires underground.

The trunk wires were transferred to the Post Office in pursuance of the policy of 1892, but for all practical purposes the local authorities had vetoed the permission of the government to the company to lay wires underground.

The Post Office co-operated with the London County Council to put difficulties in the way of the company which had placed wires underground in London with the consent of the local road authorities.