Wire n.
 1. A thread or slender rod of metal; a metallic substance formed to an even thread by being passed between grooved rollers, or drawn through holes in a plate of steel.
 Note: ☞ Wire is made of any desired form, as round, square, triangular, etc., by giving this shape to the hole in the drawplate, or between the rollers.
 2. A telegraph wire or cable; hence, an electric telegraph; as, to send a message by wire.  [Colloq.]
 3. Chiefly in pl. The system of wires used to operate the puppets in a puppet show; hence Chiefly Political Slang, the network of hidden influences controlling the action of a person or organization; as, to pull the wires for office; -- in this sense, synonymous with strings.
 4.  One who picks women's pockets. [Thieves' Slang]
 5.  A knitting needle. [Scot.]
 6.  A wire stretching across over a race track at the judges' stand, to mark the line at which the races end. [Racing Cant]
 Wire bed, Wire mattress, an elastic bed bottom or mattress made of wires interwoven or looped together in various ways.
 Wire bridge, a bridge suspended from wires, or cables made of wire.
 Wire cartridge, a shot cartridge having the shot inclosed in a wire cage.
 Wire cloth, a coarse cloth made of woven metallic wire, -- used for strainers, and for various other purposes.
 Wire edge, the thin, wirelike thread of metal sometimes formed on the edge of a tool by the stone in sharpening it.
 Wire fence, a fence consisting of posts with strained horizontal wires, wire netting, or other wirework, between.
 Wire gauge or Wire gage. (a) A gauge for measuring the diameter of wire, thickness of sheet metal, etc., often consisting of a metal plate with a series of notches of various widths in its edge. (b) A standard series of sizes arbitrarily indicated, as by numbers, to which the diameter of wire or the thickness of sheet metal in usually made, and which is used in describing the size or thickness. There are many different standards for wire gauges, as in different countries, or for different kinds of metal, the Birmingham wire gauges and the American wire gauge being often used and designated by the abbreviations B. W. G. and A. W. G. respectively.
 Wire gauze, a texture of finely interwoven wire, resembling gauze.
 Wire grass Bot., either of the two common grasses Eleusine Indica, valuable for hay and pasture, and Poa compressa, or blue grass.  See Blue grass.
 Wire grub Zool., a wireworm.
 Wire iron, wire rods of iron.
 Wire lathing, wire cloth or wire netting applied in the place of wooden lathing for holding plastering.
 Wire mattress. See Wire bed, above.
 Wire micrometer, a micrometer having spider lines, or fine wires, across the field of the instrument.
 Wire nail, a nail formed of a piece of wire which is headed and pointed.
 Wire netting, a texture of woven wire coarser than ordinary wire gauze.
 Wire rod, a metal rod from which wire is formed by drawing.
 Wire rope, a rope formed wholly, or in great part, of wires.
 down to the wire, up to the last moment, as in a race or competition; as, the two front runners were neck-and-neck down to the wire.  From {wire6}.
 under the wire, just in time; shortly before the deadline; as, to file an application just under the wire.
 Crab n.
 1. Zool. One of the brachyuran Crustacea. They are mostly marine, and usually have a broad, short body, covered with a strong shell or carapace. The abdomen is small and curled up beneath the body.
 Note: ☞ The name is applied to all the Brachyura, and to certain Anomura, as the hermit crabs.  Formerly, it was sometimes applied to Crustacea in general. Many species are edible, the blue crab of the Atlantic coast being one of the most esteemed. The large European edible crab is Cancer padurus. Soft-shelled crabs are blue crabs that have recently cast their shells. See Cancer; also, Box crab, Fiddler crab, Hermit crab, Spider crab, etc., under Box, Fiddler. etc.
 2. The zodiacal constellation Cancer.
 3.  Bot. A crab apple; -- so named from its harsh taste.
 When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
 Then nightly sings the staring owl.   --Shak.
 4. A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick. [Obs.]
 5. Mech. (a) A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc. (b) A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc. (c) A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn. (d) A claw for anchoring a portable machine.
 Calling crab. Zool. See Fiddler., n., 2.
 Crab apple, a small, sour apple, of several kinds; also, the tree which bears it; as, the European crab apple (Pyrus Malus var. sylvestris); the Siberian crab apple (Pyrus baccata); and the American (Pyrus coronaria).
 Crab grass. Bot. (a) A grass (Digitaria sanguinalis syn. Panicum sanguinalis); -- called also finger grass. (b) A grass of the genus Eleusine (Eleusine Indica); -- called also dog's-tail grass, wire grass, etc.
 Crab louse Zool., a species of louse (Phthirius pubis), sometimes infesting the human body.
 Crab plover Zool., an Asiatic plover (Dromas ardeola).
 Crab's eyes, or Crab's stones, masses of calcareous matter found, at certain seasons of the year, on either side of the stomach of the European crawfishes, and formerly used in medicine for absorbent and antacid purposes; the gastroliths.
 Crab spider Zool., one of a group of spiders (Laterigradæ); -- called because they can run backwards or sideways like a crab.
 Crab tree, the tree that bears crab applies.
 Crab wood, a light cabinet wood obtained in Guiana, which takes a high polish. --McElrath.
 To catch a crab Naut., a phrase used of a rower: (a) when he fails to raise his oar clear of the water; (b) when he misses the water altogether in making a stroke.
 wire grass
      n 1: handsome hardy North American grass with foliage turning
           pale bronze in autumn [syn: broom beard grass, prairie
           grass, Andropogon scoparius, Schizachyrium scoparium]
      2: coarse annual grass having fingerlike spikes of flowers;
         native to Old World tropics; a naturalized weed elsewhere
         [syn: yardgrass, yard grass, goose grass, Eleusine
         indica]