wiredraw

English

Alternative forms

• wire-draw
• wyredraw (obsolete)

Etymology

From wire +‎ draw.

Verb

wiredraw (third-person singular simple present wiredraws, present participle wiredrawing, simple past wiredrew, past participle wiredrawn)

1. (transitive, now rare) To stretch (some physical thing) out, as though drawing wire; to elongate.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To stretch (words, a meaning etc.) to suit one's own purpose.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
     , I.56:

     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.

   • 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:

     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,...