wires

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of wire.

   Workers strung new wires between the two poles along the road.

   The colored wires inside the panel each carry a different signal.

   Note

   A plural for counting separate lengths, not the metal as a material. Wire as a substance stays singular (a coil of wire, barbed wire), while wires picks out individual strands, cables or electrical conductors. The same spelling also serves the verb's present form (she wires the house), so the surrounding words decide which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of wire.

   The contractor wires each room according to the updated floor plan.

   Whenever a payment is due, the company wires the funds directly to the supplier.

   Note

   A form that almost never stands without an object: someone wires a cork to a bottle, a kitchen for power, or a new component into a circuit. The figurative uses keep that shape, with into marking where the thing is embedded, as in a mentor who wires a newcomer into the political scene. It is spelled exactly like the plural noun.

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