a. Also 6–7 wy(e)rie, wiery, 8–9 wirey. [f. WIRE sb. + -Y1.]
1. Made or consisting of wire; in the form of wire.
1588. T. D[eloney], Ballet Whips Spaniards, in Roxb. Ballads (1889), VI. 387. One sorte of whips they had for men,… The strings whereof with wyerie knots like rowels they did frame.
1591. Spenser, Ruins of Time, 10. Her yeolow locks, like wyrie golde, About her shoulders careleslie downe trailing.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. II. Babylon, 350. Jayes, that in their wyerie gail Can ask for victuals, and unvictual’d rail.
a. 1631. Donne, Eleg., xix. 15. Off with that wyerie Coronet and shew The haiery Diademe which on you doth grow.
1720. Gay, Ep. to P. Methuen, 95. My song confines me to the wiry cage.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. xv. The barr’d up bird will beat His breast and beak against his wiry dome.
1834. Landor, Exam. Shaks., Wks. 1846, II. 272/1. To slit an ear or two, or inflict a wiry scourging. [See WIRE sb. 1 d.]
2. Resembling wire in form and consistence; tough and flexible: said esp. of hair (hence of a dog’s coat), grass, stems of plants.
1595. Shaks., John, III. iv. 64. O what loue I note In the faire multitude of those her haires; Where but by chance a siluer drop hath falne, Euen to that drop ten thousand wiery friends Doe glew themselues in sociable griefe.
1807. Crabbe, Birth of Flattery, 308. The wiry moss, that whitens all the hill. Ibid. (1812), Tales, x. 120. Here on its wiry stem, in rigid bloom, Grows the salt lavender that lacks perfume.
1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, I. i. A strange superannunted terrier, with a wiry back.
1844. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. I. 114. Clods of couch and wiry turf.
1880. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, xxv. While he was rubbing his wiry head with irritation.
b. transf. and fig.
1770. Armstrong, Misc., I. 199. Your solid wirey nerves are asleep it would seem to the lute.
1809. W. Blake, Descr. Catal., 63. The more distinct, sharp, and wirey the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 773. In the common method of etching,… those so tinted … always present a wiry hard effect.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, iv. ‘Knock him down.’ There is something peculiarly harsh and stunning in those three, hard—wirey—sturdy—stubborn monosyllables.
c. Med. of the pulse: Small and tense.
1801. [implied in WIRINESS].
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 621. The pulse becomes small, sharp, wiry or thready.
3. Of sound: Produced by or as by the plucking or vibration of a wire; sometimes, of music, played on string instruments; of a voice, thin and metallic.
1819. [H. Busk], Vestriad, IV. 767. Stridulous guitar with wiry twang.
1830. Examiner, 20 Jan., 388/1. He has in a considerable degree softened his voice, the tones of which were sharp and wiry.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 140/1. The tone of this piano-forte was thin and wiry.
1841. [see WINDY a. 1 b].
1883. in Royal Acad. Catal., 222. With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway’st The wiry concord.
4. of a person or animal: Lean, tough and sinewy. Hence fig. of personal attributes.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. Introd. 11. Wiry terrier, rough and grim.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xi. Mrs. Blimber … was a lady of great suavity, and a wiry figure.
a. 1870. Stubbs, Lect. Eur. Hist., I. xi. 138. A wiry pertinacity was the distinctive feature of Charles’s character.
1878. Black, Green Past., xiii. The wiry little pony he rode.
5. Comb. (chiefly in sense 2), as wiry-coated, -haired, -leaved, -looking adjs.
1832. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 30. A slightish, wiry-looking old man.
1835. C. F. Hoffman, Winter in West, I. 155. A brindled, wiry-haired dog.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., i. A wiry-looking bay mare.
1880. J. Buchanan, Indig. Grasses N. Z., Pl. xxxi. Danthonia Australis,… Wiry-leaved Oat Grass.
¶ Used for: Made of iron: cf. WIRE sb. ¶ (at end).
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handie-Crafts, 567. Wiery Cymbals [orig. Des Cimbales le fer].
