[f. WIRE sb.]
† 1. a. To adorn with (gold) wire. Obs. rare.
13[?]. K. Alis., 203 (MS. Laud). Her ȝelewe her was faire atired, Mid riche strenges of golde wyred.
b. To entwine. Obs. rare.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., I. xiv. (1650), I. 23. As the Vine her lovely Elm doth wire.
† c. intr. To wind or twist about. Obs. rare.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., IV. xxi. In small streams (through all the Island wiring).
2. trans. To furnish with a wire or wires. a. To fasten, join, or fit with wire or wires; spec. to secure (the cork of a bottle, the bottle itself) with wire.
1435. Churchw. Acc. St. Michael’s, Oxford (MS.). i lib. of talow candell y-wyrede to the rode soler.
1551–2. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 73. For vj mouldes for serpentes for the same hedpeces—ijs. and for wyeryng of xj of those serpentes at viijd the pece—vijs. iiijd.
1683. Lorrain, trans. Muret’s Rites Funeral, To Rdr. A 4 b. A Skeleton how neatly soever hung and wir’d together, is not an Object so entertaining as a Venus.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 24 Aug. 1678. They … then put it [sc. pulp] into a vessell of water, in which they dip a frame closely wyred with wyre as small as a haire.
1706. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), I. 226. One of the Sceleton’s in ye Anatomy Schoole was wired by one Wells a Smith.
1828–32. Webster, Wire,… to apply wire to, as in bottling liquors.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 295. The bottles should be wired down, and laid on their sides.
1837. Miss Mitford, Country Stories (1850), 124. He had written the label and wired the root.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 377. Jaw retained in position by wiring the fragments together.
b. To furnish with a wire support; to stiffen with wire.
1834. Planché, Brit. Costume, 274. The ruff was … starched and wired as usual.
1882. J. Ashton, Soc. Life Reign Q. Anne, I. xiii. 151. In 1711 the coats used to be wired to make them stick out.
1891. Daily News, 29 April, 7/1. Even ribbon loops are wired for hat and bonnet trimming.
c. To fence with wire: chiefly to wire in, to enclose with a wire fence.
1691. J. Gibson in Archæologia, XII. 184. The enclosure wired-in for white pheasants and partridges.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. viii. § 17. 92–3. They will look as if they were meant to keep the central shaft together by wiring or caging it in; like iron rods set round a supple cylinder.
1854. Poultry Chron., II. 60. A range of tables, the under part of which was wired in to form pens for the geese.
d. To strengthen or protect with (barbed) wire.
1881. Mrs. P. O’Donoghue, Ladies on Horseback, 181. Wire the fences if necessary; but at the commencement of the hunting season, cut away, say twenty yards of the wiring.
1917. Blackw. Mag., May, 737/2. Every night parties sallied forth, some to wire, others to repair the parapet.
e. To furnish with electric wires.
1891. A. Fahie, House Lighting by Electr., 77. The … cost of wiring houses of different sizes.
1898. Daily News, 27 Aug., 6/4. Nearly every street of importance had been wired.
3. To catch or trap in a wire snare. Also fig.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, III. x. He said that George had wired Hares.
1771. in Hone, Every-day Bk. (1827), II. 207. Court. A sturdy beggar! We must find out some means of wiring that fellow!
1798. Southey, Engl. Ecl., Sailor’s Mother, 110. But he was caught In wiring hares at last.
1836. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xx. Why, if he aint snared, Sam; he is properly wired, I declare.
1851. Newland, Erne, v. 136. I recollect wiring a great lumping chubb once. I caught him asleep.
4. pass. and intr. (also with in) Of a horse’s foot: To be contracted in the heel; to be affected with ‘wire heel’; also trans., to cause to be ‘wired.’
1614, etc. [see WIRED ppl. a. 4].
1753. J. Bartlet, Gentl. Farriery (1754), 309. This turns them narrow above, wires their heels, and dries … the frog.
1831. Youatt, Horse, 293. Many persons reject a horse … if the quarters are wiring in.
5. Croquet. To place one’s own or an opponent’s ball so that a hoop intervenes between it and its object: with ball or player as obj. Chiefly pass.
1866. Croquet: Implements & Laws, 10. A ball is Wired when it cannot effect the stroke desired on account of the leg of a hoop (wire) intervening.
1868. W. J. Whitmone, Croquet Tactics, 21. To be wired is to have your ball in such a position that you cannot hit some other ball, or get through your hoop, because of a wire intervening.
1874. J. D. Heath, Croquet-player, 54. It is useless to wire a ball from the player, if another ball, at which he would be more likely to shoot, is left unwired or ‘open.’ Ibid., 71. Red … has wired the player for all the balls.
1904. E. F. Benson, Challoners, i. Helen was standing close by her brother in the proud calm consciousness of having wired him with complete success.
6. To send (a message) ‘over the wires,’ to telegraph; also absol. or intr.; transf. to send a telegraph message to; = TELEGRAPH v. 1. colloq.
1859. Edin. Rev., April, 378. Another party, who are striving to debase the language by introducing the verb ‘to wire,’ instead of the word hitherto used, ‘to telegraph.’
1863. Dicey, Federal St., I. 247. No intelligence could be ‘wired,’ according to the American phrase.
1876. ‘E. Pinto’ (Latham Smith), Ye Outside Fools! (1877), 31–2. I am going to wire my broker fellow to buy a couple of thousand Bs and Cs.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, xii. I want you to wire to Tom and demand the truth about the matter.
1883. Leisure Hour, 282/2. The relief train came up, news of the difficulty having been wired on from the track.
1891. ‘Annie Thomas,’ Roll of Honor, x. 90. He was wired for to go and look at a pony.
7. intr. To wire in (rarely away), to get to work with a will, to apply oneself energetically to something; to wire into (a meal, etc.), to set about it with avidity. colloq. or slang.
Origin uncertain; cf. quot. 1870 and Slang Dict., 1874, where it is said that the orig. phr. is ‘wire in and get your name up,’ an invitation to enter the ring for a contest.
1865. Slang Dict. (ed. 3), Wire-in, a London street phrase in general use at the present time.
1870. Daily News, 16 April. We were politely told by Sandy to ‘wire in’—digger’s phraseology for an invitation to commence.
1883. Sir H. Pottinger, in Fortn. Rev., Jan., 93. In one fashion or another he ‘keeps wiring away.’
1891. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Sydney-side Saxon, vi. I asked for work at the first station I came to, and though I was strange to it, I wired in with a will.
1894. Astley, Fifty Yrs. Life, II. 252. After wiring into a leg of mutton and rice pudding, [I] turned into a … welcome bed.
