live wire

noun

Definition of live wirenext
1
as in pistol
a very energetic person the babysitter will have her hands full with those two little live wires

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in powerhouse
an ambitious person who eagerly goes after what is desired that new reporter on the police beat is a real live wire

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of live wire My daughter has been a live wire since she was born. — Marah Eakin, Vulture, 7 May 2026 One of the brothers used a carbon-fibre pole while attempting to get the bird down and touched the live wires on the power line, killing him instantly. — Escher Walcott, PEOPLE, 25 Apr. 2026 The Olympia is now absorbing this collective energy like a live wire. — Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 15 Apr. 2026 In the band’s heyday, Anthony Kiedis, with his bare torso and long girlish copper-blond hair, looked like a ’70s teen idol who’d become a Warhol hustler – a street-flesh god like Joe Dallesandro, except that where Dallesandro was in a daze, Kiedis was a live wire. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 13 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for live wire
Recent Examples of Synonyms for live wire
  1. pistol
  2. powerhouse
  3. dynamo
Noun
  • During the confrontation, which occurred back in August of 1978, Bell shot Dickens with a pistol, and then went back to his truck, grabbed a rifle, and shot him in the forehead, killing him.
    — Marlow Stern, Variety, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Police accused Rice of pulling out a pistol and shooting Lytton several times.
    — Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of pistol
Noun
  • Hauser is a powerhouse of the European tech scene and uniquely placed to comment on the continent’s position in the AI revolution.
    — Arjun Kharpal,Kai Nicol-Schwarz, CNBC, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Butler had been instrumental in building AAU volleyball into a powerhouse.
    — Molly Hensley-Clancy, ProPublica, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of powerhouse
Noun
  • There’s 5-year-old Ara, who has diabetes (a fact the film focuses on with a touch of heavy-handed irony), but is a numbers-crunching dynamo who does Pilates.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 8 Aug. 2026
  • But mostly, the monarch persists because life’s job is to live; because within those thimble-size bodies hides a dynamo of survival that puts our most incredible machines to shame.
    — Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, 28 July 2026
Definition of dynamo

Browse Nearby Words

live up to
live wire
live wires
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Cite this Entry

“Live wire.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/live%20wire. Accessed 17 Aug. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of live wire for Spanish Speakers

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