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.

Origin of hot-wire

1
First recorded in 1950–55

Words Nearby hot-wire

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hot-wire in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for hot-wire

hot-wire

verb
  1. (tr) slang 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