wired

1. 1
   adjective

   Fitted with wires that connect it to a power source or to other electric or electronic equipment.

   The lab is wired to support dozens of instruments running at once.

   Every workstation in the building is wired directly to the main server.

   Similarconnected, networked

   Oppositewireless, cordless

2. 2
   adjectiveslang

   Very excited and overstimulated, in a tense, jittery, high-strung state.

   He was so wired before the interview that he couldn't sit still.

   By midnight the whole team was wired on energy drinks and adrenaline.

   Similarjittery, hyper, jumpy, edgy, overexcited

   Oppositecalm, relaxed, mellow

   Note

   A slang word for a body running on too much current, often coffee. It has a life in song: The Fall's "Totally Wired" (1980) follows a huge dose of coffee with the title phrase, and Bob Dylan's "Love Sick" (1997) pairs being worn out with being wired in a rhyme. The pattern to reach for is too wired to sleep. Keep it to casual talk, where it pairs naturally with on: wired on coffee.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of wire.

   Engineers wired the satellite's components carefully before launch.

   The old barn was wired for electricity decades ago.

   Note

   A regular verb, so one spelling serves both the past (they wired the barn) and the participle (it has been wired). In the passive it shades into the electrical adjective: in "the barn was wired for electricity," the two are hard to tell apart. The verb also has a figurative use, embedding someone deeply in an organization or political scene so that they are plugged into it.

4. 4
   adjectivecolloquial

   Connected to the Internet and able to access online services.

   By the late 1990s most offices were wired and employees expected email access.

   The remote village finally got wired after years of waiting.

   Similaronline, connected, networked

   Oppositeoffline

   Note

   Said of people and places rather than devices: a country, a village or a coffee drinker gets wired. The usual verb is get. In Derek Da Cunha's Singapore in the new millennium (2002), "the decision to get wired" is a national one. Cincinnati Magazine in 2004 played it against the caffeine-jittery sense: coffee drinkers had "yet another way to get wired."

5. 5
   adjective

   Fitted with concealed electronic devices for secretly recording or listening in on conversations.

   The undercover agent went in wired, hoping to capture a confession.

   Suspicious that the room was wired, they spoke only in whispers.

   Similarbugged, miked, tapped

6. 6
   adjective

   Reinforced, supported, or held together by being tied or bound with wire.

   The vineyard's young vines were wired to wooden frames for support.

   The champagne cork was wired down to hold the pressure in the bottle.

   Similarbound, tied, secured

7. 7
   adjectiveslang

   Completely worked out and fully understood, down to the details.

   By the third rehearsal the band had their whole set wired.

   He had the exam material wired and breezed through every question.

   Similarnailed, sorted, down

   Note

   Its classic setting is the surf. In Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer (1966), learning where the rocks are and how the waves break over the reef is called "getting a place wired." The usual frame is get or have something wired, with the thing mastered as the object. The word stays casual: it is natural among friends and out of place in a report.

8. 8
   adjective

   Having feathers that are stiff and wiry in texture rather than soft or downy.

   The wired plumage around its throat distinguished the male from the female.

   Field guides note the wired feathers running along the species' crest.

   Similarwiry, bristly, stiff

   Oppositesoft, downy

   Note

   A term of zoological description, used of birds rather than objects. The -ed here means "having," as in feathered or crested, not "fitted with." So wired plumage is plumage that is itself wiry, unlike the wire-bound sense, where wire has been added from outside. In ordinary prose, wiry feathers says the same thing more transparently.

9. 9
   adjectiveslang

   In seven-card stud, being a pair made of one face-up card and one face-down card.

   Holding wired tens, she raised before anyone could read her hand.

   A pair that comes in wired early in seven-card stud gives a disguised advantage.

   Note

   Card-room slang, and players also call this hand back to back. The point of the term is the split: one card of the pair is hidden, so opponents can see only half of it. Like most poker shorthand, it attaches straight to the rank, as in wired tens or wired aces. It sounds natural only at the table.

10. 10
    adjectiveslang

    In seven-card stud, being three of a kind among a player's first three cards.

    Dealt wired kings, she had three of a kind before the betting even began.

    A hand that arrives wired in seven-card stud is rare and devastating.

    Note

    The same card-room word as the split-pair meaning, applied to a bigger hand. It can trail the hand as an afterthought, as in "three of a kind, wired," or sit before the rank, as in wired kings. Because one word covers both hands, a listener relies on context or the card count to know whether a pair or three of a kind is meant.

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