hot-wire

Thân thiện

The woman had to hot-wire her van to get home.

Definition

1. Verb:
   • To start the engine of a vehicle, typically a car, without using the key. This is done by manually connecting the ignition wires to bypass the lock, often for illicit purposes or in an emergency.

Usage

• The verb "hot-wire" is used with a vehicle (e.g., car, van, motorcycle) as its direct object. It describes a specific, often illegal, action.
• It is a transitive verb (e.g., ).
• Common contexts: crime, emergency situations, automotive repair.

Examples

• Verb:
  • The thief managed to hot-wire the car in under a minute.
  • I locked my keys inside, so I had to learn how to hot-wire my own truck to get home.

Advanced Usage

• "to hot-wire something": The standard construction. It implies skill and intent.
  • In the movie, the hero had to hot-wire a bus to chase the villains.

Variants and Related Words

• Hot-wiring (gerund/noun): The act or process of starting a vehicle this way.
  • Hot-wiring a modern car with an immobilizer is nearly impossible.

Synonyms

• Jump-start: While often used for starting a car with a dead battery using cables, in informal contexts it can sometimes be used similarly, though it is not a precise synonym.
• Start illegally: A descriptive phrase rather than a single-word synonym.

Notes

• "Hot-wire" is a compound verb formed from the adjective "hot" (meaning electrically live or active) and the noun "wire."
• This term is almost exclusively used in the context of vehicles and ignition systems. Do not confuse it with simply "wiring" something, which means to install electrical circuits.
• The action described is frequently associated with crime (auto theft) but can also be depicted in survival or emergency scenarios in fiction.

Học thuật

Verb

1. start (a car engine) without a key by bypassing the ignition interlock
   • The woman who lost the car keys had to hot-wire her van