wiry
- Adjective:
- Resembling wire in texture or stiffness: Used primarily to describe hair that is coarse, stiff, and often curly or unruly.
- Lean, tough, and sinewy: Describes a person or animal that is thin but strong, with visible muscle and little fat, giving an impression of toughness and resilience.
- Made of or resembling wire: Pertaining to something that has the thin, strong, and flexible qualities of wire.
Describing hair: His wiry gray hair stuck out in all directions.She tried to brush her wiry curls, but they were too stubborn.
Describing a person's physique: The old sailor had a wiry build from years of hard work.Despite his small frame, he was surprisingly wiry and strong.
Describing texture or composition: The artist used a wiry metal to create the sculpture's framework.
"Wiry strength": A phrase used to emphasize that someone's thin physique belies a significant amount of strength and endurance. The marathon runner possessed a wiry strength that carried him through the race.
"Wiry texture": Can be extended metaphorically to describe things other than hair or bodies, such as plant stems or certain fabrics, that feel tough and fibrous. The stems of the bush had a dry, wiry texture.
- Wire (n): A thin, flexible thread of metal. This is the root noun from which "wiry" is derived.
- Wiriness (n): The quality or state of being wiry.
- For hair: Coarse, bristly, stiff.
- For physique: Sinewy, stringy, lean, tough, athletic.
- For hair: Silky, soft, fine.
- For physique: Flabby, soft, corpulent, heavy-set.
(Note: "Wiry" itself is not commonly used in phrasal verbs or as part of many idioms. Its usage is primarily descriptive.) - "Tough as wire": An informal simile similar in meaning to describing someone as wiry, implying resilience and strength. After working on the farm all his life, he was as tough as wire.
- of hair that resembles wire in stiffness
- wiry red hair
- of or relating to wire
- lean and sinewy