Dictionary

wiredraw en · VERB

Etymology

From wire + draw.

Meanings

1. (archaic, transitive) To stretch (some physical thing) out, as though drawing wire; to elongate.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To stretch (words, a meaning etc.) to suit one's own purpose.
   • I am of opinion that the uncontrouled libertie, that all men have to wrest, dissipate, and wyredraw a word so religious and important, to so many severall idiomes, hath much more danger than profit following it. , I.56
   • The vision was, however, so wiredrawn, it was so evident that the nobleman had not got his own consent to the vague something floating in his "mind's eye," that he left her in the dark as to his wishes and intentions beyond the belief that he was determined to seek, in the matrimonial state, that happiness which had hitherto eluded his pursuit,... 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 256–257:

Forms