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Live wire   /laɪv wˈaɪər/   Listen
adjective
Live  adj.  
1.
Having life; alive; living; not dead. "If one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it."
2.
Being in a state of ignition; burning; having active properties; as, a live coal; live embers. " The live ether."
3.
Full of earnestness; active; wide awake; glowing; as, a live man, or orator.
4.
Vivid; bright. " The live carnation."
5.
(Engin.) Imparting power; having motion; as, the live spindle of a lathe; live steam.
6.
(Elec.) Connected to a voltage source; as, a live wire.
7.
(Broadcasting) Being transmitted instantaneously, as events occur, in contrast to recorded.
8.
(Sport) Still in active play; of a ball being used in a game; as, a live ball.
9.
Pertaining to an entertainment event which was performed (and possibly recorded) in front of an audience; contrasted to performances recorded in a studio without an audience.
Live birth, the condition of being born in such a state that acts of life are manifested after the extrusion of the whole body.
Live box, a cell for holding living objects under microscopical examination.
Live feathers, feathers which have been plucked from the living bird, and are therefore stronger and more elastic.
Live gang. (Sawing) See under Gang.
Live grass (Bot.), a grass of the genus Eragrostis.
Live load (Engin.), a suddenly applied load; a varying load; a moving load; as a moving train of cars on a bridge, or wind pressure on a roof.
Live oak (Bot.), a species of oak (Quercus virens), growing in the Southern States, of great durability, and highly esteemed for ship timber. In California the Quercus chrysolepis and some other species are also called live oaks.
Live ring (Engin.), a circular train of rollers upon which a swing bridge, or turntable, rests, and which travels around a circular track when the bridge or table turns.
Live steam, steam direct from the boiler, used for any purpose, in distinction from exhaust steam.
Live stock, horses, cattle, and other domestic animals kept on a farm. whole body.
live wire
(a)
(Elec.) a wire connected to a power source, having a voltage potential; used esp. of a power line with a high potential relative to ground, capable of harming a person who touches it.
(b)
(Fig.) a person who is unusually active, alert, or aggressive.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Live wire" Quotes from Famous Books



... her desk writing the stereotyped account of the event, it was like picking up a live wire to speak to her. As she wrote, we could tell at just what stage she had arrived in her copy. Thus, if she said to the adjacent atmosphere, "What a whopper!" we knew that she had written, "The crowning glory of a happy fortnight of social gatherings found its place ...
— In Our Town • William Allen White
... of the "live wire octette"—even Timothy and Libbie—were highly delighted by the outcome of Tommy's joke. For, if there is fun in such a practical joke as Tommy had tried to carry through, they thought there was double fun in ...
— Betty Gordon at Mountain Camp • Alice B. Emerson
... somewhat strident voice a softness that was almost pathetic. "You don't know Broadway, Coira, do you? Nix! of course not. Little girl, it's the one street of all this large world. It's the equator that runs north and south instead of east and west. It's a long, bright, gay, live wire!—that's what Broadway is. And I give you my word of honor, like a little man, that it—is—not—slow. No-o, indeed! When I was there last it was being called the 'Gay White Way.' It is not called the 'Gay White Way' now. It has had ...
— Jason • Justus Miles Forman
... in it?" The Rat pondered. "It'd make a chap careful if he believed it! Revenging yourself on a man would be like holding him against a live wire to kill him and getting all ...
— The Lost Prince • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... me that he had preached a sermon on the text, "Let him that stole steal no more," I was interested. But shortly after, he told me that he could not let go of that text. It was a live wire. He had expanded the sermon into a course on the different kinds of stealing. He found few things that did not come under the category of Theft. Spiritual goods as well as material might be stolen. If a person possessed a cheerful disposition, ...
— Humanly Speaking • Samuel McChord Crothers
... men make about such things when they are busy. It took only five minutes for the conductor to hunt up a coil of wire and a sounder for me, and by the time he got forward with it, Bartholomew was half-way up a telegraph pole to help me cut in on a live wire. Fast as I could, I rigged a pony, and began calling the McCloud despatcher. It was rocky sending, but after no end of pounding, I got him and gave orders for the wrecking gang, and for one more of Neighbor's rapidly decreasing supply ...
— Golden Stories - A Selection of the Best Fiction by the Foremost Writers • Various
... in the morning—the time up to which he can rely on the current—Creake will throw a stone up at the balcony window. Most of his preparation has long been made; it only remains for him to connect up a short length to the window handle and a longer one at the other end to tap the live wire. That done, he will wake his wife in the way I have said. The moment she moves the catch of the window—and he has carefully filed its parts to ensure perfect contact—she will be electrocuted as effectually as if she sat in the executioner's ...
— Four Max Carrados Detective Stories • Ernest Bramah
... was left alone in the inquisition-room. And as Mr. Godfrey Vandeford went down in an elevator on his way to the Claridge to deliver the next instalment of the spanking of Miss Violet Hawtry, he passed a live wire going up opposite him and met one walking down Forty-second Street, neither of which he could be expected to recognize, as he had ...
— Blue-grass and Broadway • Maria Thompson Daviess


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