Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for live wire

live wire

[ lahyv ]

noun

, Informal.
  1. an energetic, keenly alert person.


live wire

/ laɪv /

noun

  1. informal.
    an energetic or enterprising person
  2. a wire carrying an electric current
“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


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of live wire1

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05
Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

A highly alert or energetic person. For example, Sally's a real live wire; she brightens up any gathering . This metaphoric term transfers a wire carrying electric current to a lively individual. [c. 1900]
Discover More

Example Sentences

I can’t say I’ve ever found Elgort too memorable except in Baby Driver, where he’s a live wire and beautifully light on his feet.

From Vox

He's a live wire, Laurence: very, very intelligent and he can keep a whole unit bubbling along.

A live wire had connected with the metal bars of the house, and the electric shock was burning Lysondya's leg.

Indeed, we are told he even demonstrated the deadly effect of a live wire by killing a turkey on the other side of the river!

In the parlance of the present day, he is a live wire, or in other words he has the dynamic force which makes things move.

Dangerous work, as they came to realize after Constans had narrowly escaped being burned by contact with a live wire.

The black wire is the hot side, the live wire, because it carries the full load of the battery up to the bulb.

The strong thought of self is inevitably insulatingit is as restrictive of human contact as a live wire.

Advertisement

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


livewarelive with