v. Now rare. [Back-formation from WIRE-DRAWER.]
1. trans. To draw out (metal) into wire: see WIRE-DRAWING vbl. sb. 1. rare.
1666. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual., 96. Though out of a wedge of Gold one cannot immediately make a Ring, yet by … Wyre-drawing that Wedge by degrees,… That thing may easily be effected.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Wire-draw, to draw out Gold or Silver-Thread.
1755. Johnson, To Wiredraw. 1. To spin into wire.
1828–32. Webster.
2. transf. To draw out (a material thing) to an elongated form; to stretch, elongate.
1598. Florio, Stringare … to wyre-draw a thing.
1648. Hunting of Fox, 23. To tug and wire-draw as Shoe-makers ordinarily do their leather between their hands and their teeth.
1656. Flecknoe, Diarium, 86. Such an art as his, Who wire-draw’d Simon to Simonides. Ibid., 92. But loath I am to stretch mine eares so far, As if they wire-drawn, or tenter’d were.
1656. F. Hawkins, Youths Behav. (1661), 51. Perforations, through which Nature is wont to wyer draw spare humors into a fine spun excrescency [sc. hair].
a. 1658. Cleveland, London Lady, 49. He wire-draws up his Jaws, and snuffs and grins.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), 42. He never desisted from pulling his Beard, till he had wiredrawn it down to his Feet.
1849. D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 163. The bird … has been actually wire-drawn. It has grown all the hours you have neglected it, without anything to grow from.
b. To cause (steam or water) to pass through a small aperture, thereby diminishing its pressure.
1744. Desaguliers, Course Exper. Philos., II. 522. It must not be taken for a general Rule, that Wire-drawing the Water, as it is call’d, is always a Fault.
1787. M. Boulton, Lett. to Jas. Watt, 1 Oct. Briggan always expanded the steam, great Poldice wiredraws it, as the valve opens very little indeed.
1802. Specif. Trevethick’s Patent, No. 2599. 2. This passage has a throttle valve … to wiredraw the steam.
3. fig. a. To draw or prolong to an inordinate length; to protract excessively, spin out.
1598. Florio, Puntare,… to wyre-draw any matter.
1611. Cotgr., Tardiver, to linger, foreslow, slacke, delay, wire-draw it.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. i. IV. i. 299. As an hungry Surgeon often doth prolong & wierdraw his cure so long as there is any hope of pay.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 40. His torments were so lengthened, and wire-drawne, to the end Christians might feele themselves dye.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xl. 332. I prorogate … wyre-draw, and shift off the Time.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, I. iii. They may contrive to fill up the middle and end of the evening by wire-drawing the comments afforded by the beginning.
1785. in Grose, Dict. Vulgar T.
b. To draw out to an extreme tenuity; to reduce to a subtle fineness; to attenuate.
1660. Gauden, God’s Gt. Demonstr., 18. The superfluity of mans wit and eloquence glories to find out many inventions, definitions and distinctions, even in plain things: wire-drawing religion into fine threads.
1683. Cave, Ecclesiastici, 313. Having wiredrawn the Article concerning the Son of God into infinite Controversies and Disputes.
1796. Lamb, Lett. to Coleridge, 13 June. Sonnets and all, they won’t make a thousand lines as I propose completing ’em, and the substance must be wire-drawn.
1864. Lowell, Biglow P., Introd., Poems 1890, II. 161. The school of Pope in verse ended by wire-drawing its phrase to such thinness that it could bear no weight of meaning whatever.
c. To strain, force or wrest by subtle argument or the like.
1610. Carleton, Jurisd., 288. Such as would proue this Iurisdiction from certaine texts of Scripture, as:.. oraui pro te Petre, &c. And such like which are wire-drawen to countenance this Papall Iurisdiction.
1653. Gauden, Hierasp., 530. He needes not wiredraw his conscience, till it fits every State passage.
1663. South, Serm. (1717), V. 59. Nor am I for forcing, or wiredrawing the Sense of the Text.
1687. Good Advice, 59. For while a man is out of Office, he is Test-free, but the hour he is chosen to any station … he must wyredraw his Conscience to hold it.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pref. *A 2. Where I have been wrongfully accus’d, and my Sense wire-drawn into Blasphemy or Bawdry.
1765. Wesley, Lett., 14 May. Do not wrest, and wiredraw, and colour my words.
1812–29. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1838), III. 155. If our old divines … wire-drew their text, in the anxiety to evolve out of the words the fulness of the meaning.
1873. H. Rogers, Orig. Bible, iii. 115. Questions … which only tend to wiredraw the judgment.
absol. 1831. Emerson, Jrnl., 25 Dec. (1909), II. 440. The rough and tumble old fellows, Bacons, Miltons, and Burkes don’t wire-draw.
† d. To draw, bring, get, induce, extract, introduce, etc., by some subtle device. Obs.
1633. Marmion, Fine Comp., III. i. Although her husband be penurious,… Yet she can make him malleable, and worke him, And turne, and hammer him, and wire-draw him.
1650. R. Stapylton, trans. Strada’s Low C. Wars, II. 46. The Prince of Orange,… to wyer-draw the whole business out of the King, takes upon him to have been privy to the plot.
a. 1662. Heylin, Laud (1668), 482. It was no hard matter for the Houses of Parliament to wire-draw him by degrees to such Condescensions.
1705. in Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. (1870), I. 173. Among Mr. Commy’s 5 Arguments … is wiredrawn in a Sly ill look’t insinuation.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. iii. § 26 (1740), 138. I grant that Matter very fit to be taken Notice of in the History of that Time; but then … truly, as it was, and not only, as here is done, to wire-draw a Reflection from it.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, I. xliii. 303. If … I … suspected, that she sought only to gain time, in order to wire-draw me into a consent.
† e. To draw or spin out into (also with coloring from c). Obs.
1648. Heylin, Relat. & Observ., I. 135. In conclusion, after a tedious debate, the desires of the Citizens were referred to a Committee of the House to be wyer-drawne into an Ordinance.
1756. Connoisseur, No. 118, ¶ 8. [He] wire-drawed the books of Moses into a complete system of Natural Philosophy.
† f. intr. To be penurious or stingy; trans. to be overreaching or extortionate with. Obs.
1610. Beaum. & Fl., Scornf. Lady, V. i. Thou hadst land and thousands, thou spendst, and flungst away, and yet it flows in double: I purchased, wrung, and wierdraw’d, for my wealth, lost, and was cozen’d.
1642. D. Rogers, Naaman, 162. Seeing us wire-draw and castabout every way, rather then we will part with anything.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Wire-draw, to screw, over-reach, or deal hard with.
