"live wire" meaning in English

See live wire in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈlaɪv ˈwaɪə(ɹ)/ Audio: En-au-live wire.ogg [Australia] Forms: live wires [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} live wire (plural live wires)
  1. (electricity) An electrical wire through which there is a flow of electrical current. Categories (topical): Electricity Synonyms: live-wire, livewire
    Sense id: en-live_wire-en-noun-S0MpIjR3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 56 44 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 47 53 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 52 48 Topics: business, electrical-engineering, electricity, electromagnetism, energy, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics
  2. (figurative) An especially energetic, alert, or vivacious person. Tags: figuratively Categories (topical): People, Personality Synonyms: go-getter, life of the party, self-starter Translations (idiom for a vivacious person): pile électrique [feminine] (French), kori (Maori)
    Sense id: en-live_wire-en-noun-nRl2SH~s Disambiguation of People: 2 98 Disambiguation of Personality: 7 93 Categories (other): English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 47 53 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 52 48 Disambiguation of 'idiom for a vivacious person': 10 90

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for live wire meaning in English (4.3kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "live wires",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "live wire (plural live wires)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Electricity",
          "orig": "en:Electricity",
          "parents": [
            "Electromagnetism",
            "Physics",
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "52 48",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006 September 27, “Two boys electrocuted”, in The Hindu, India, retrieved 2008-12-24",
          "text": "Two boys got electrocuted when a live wire fell on the auto-rickshaw in which they were sitting.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An electrical wire through which there is a flow of electrical current."
      ],
      "id": "en-live_wire-en-noun-S0MpIjR3",
      "links": [
        [
          "electricity",
          "electricity"
        ],
        [
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          "electrical current"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(electricity) An electrical wire through which there is a flow of electrical current."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "live-wire"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "livewire"
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      ],
      "topics": [
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        "electrical-engineering",
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        "electromagnetism",
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        "physics"
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    {
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          "_dis": "52 48",
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        {
          "_dis": "2 98",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
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          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 93",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Personality",
          "orig": "en:Personality",
          "parents": [
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            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1927 December 19, “Will Not Go”, in Time",
          "text": "Mr. Black is a kindly, gentle, fine individual, but as a leader, an up-to-date fellow, a go-getter—why he just doesn't know the first thing about it. . . . In a growing community like Douglaston we need a live wire.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, “Psycho Killer”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads",
          "text": "I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire / Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Charlaine Harris, Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, page 95",
          "text": "She was irresistible—a laughing, chattering live wire, never at a loss for a word.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An especially energetic, alert, or vivacious person."
      ],
      "id": "en-live_wire-en-noun-nRl2SH~s",
      "links": [
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        [
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        [
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) An especially energetic, alert, or vivacious person."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "go-getter"
        },
        {
          "word": "life of the party"
        },
        {
          "word": "self-starter"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "10 90",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "idiom for a vivacious person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "pile électrique"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "10 90",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "idiom for a vivacious person",
          "word": "kori"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlaɪv ˈwaɪə(ɹ)/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-live wire.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0b/En-au-live_wire.ogg/En-au-live_wire.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/En-au-live_wire.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "live wire"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "en:People",
    "en:Personality"
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "live wires",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "live wire (plural live wires)",
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        "en:Electricity"
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        {
          "ref": "2006 September 27, “Two boys electrocuted”, in The Hindu, India, retrieved 2008-12-24",
          "text": "Two boys got electrocuted when a live wire fell on the auto-rickshaw in which they were sitting.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An electrical wire through which there is a flow of electrical current."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "electricity",
          "electricity"
        ],
        [
          "electrical current",
          "electrical current"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(electricity) An electrical wire through which there is a flow of electrical current."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "electrical-engineering",
        "electricity",
        "electromagnetism",
        "energy",
        "engineering",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "physics"
      ]
    },
    {
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1927 December 19, “Will Not Go”, in Time",
          "text": "Mr. Black is a kindly, gentle, fine individual, but as a leader, an up-to-date fellow, a go-getter—why he just doesn't know the first thing about it. . . . In a growing community like Douglaston we need a live wire.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, “Psycho Killer”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads",
          "text": "I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire / Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Charlaine Harris, Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, page 95",
          "text": "She was irresistible—a laughing, chattering live wire, never at a loss for a word.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An especially energetic, alert, or vivacious person."
      ],
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        [
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) An especially energetic, alert, or vivacious person."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "go-getter"
        },
        {
          "word": "life of the party"
        },
        {
          "word": "self-starter"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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      ]
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  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˈlaɪv ˈwaɪə(ɹ)/"
    },
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0b/En-au-live_wire.ogg/En-au-live_wire.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/En-au-live_wire.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "live-wire"
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    {
      "word": "livewire"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "idiom for a vivacious person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "pile électrique"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "idiom for a vivacious person",
      "word": "kori"
    }
  ],
  "word": "live wire"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.