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View synonyms for hot-wire

hot-wire

[ verb hot-wahyuhr; adjective hot-wahyuhr ]

verb (used with object)

, hot-wired, hot-wir·ing.
  1. Slang. to start the engine of (a motor vehicle) by short-circuiting the ignition.


adjective

  1. Electricity, Engineering. depending for its operation on the lengthening or increasing resistance of a wire when it is heated:

    hot-wire anemometer; hot-wire microphone.

hot-wire

verb

  1. slang.
    tr to start the engine of (a motor vehicle) by bypassing the ignition switch
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of hot-wire1

First recorded in 1950–55
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Example Sentences

“He also told me of the struggles they were having with their equipment — having to hot-wire vehicles just to get from one part of the airport to the other,” Mr. Lopez said.

Some Taliban fighters stood hunched over the engines or tried to hot-wire every vehicle they saw.

The men had to hot-wire it, break the ignition and jumpstart the car before it was ready to hit the road back to their hotel in Granby, Colorado.

But the world my son is entering is already a blinking bazaar of distractions, engineered to hot-wire our attention.

Every instinct told him to run out of school, hot-wire the El Camino, and chase them across the entire state of North Carolina if he had to.

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hot wellhot-wire anemometer