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)
- (transitive, now rare) To stretch (some physical thing) out, as though drawing wire; to elongate.
- (transitive, obsolete) To stretch (words, a meaning etc.) to suit one's own purpose.
- 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:, 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.
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