slug vs wire

slug

noun
  • A solid block or piece of roughly shaped metal. 

  • A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use. 

  • A bullet or other projectile fired from a firearm; in modern usage, generally refers to a shotgun slug. 

  • The last part of a clean URL, the displayed resource name, similar to a filename. 

  • A hard blow, usually with the fist. 

  • A black screen. 

  • A motile pseudoplasmodium formed by amoebae working together. 

  • A piece of type metal imprinted by a linotype machine; also a black mark placed in the margin to indicate an error; also said in application to typewriters; type slug. 

  • A ship that sails slowly. 

  • The imperial (English) unit of mass that accelerates by 1 foot per second squared (1 ft/s²) when a force of one pound-force (lbf) is exerted on it. 

  • Any of many terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell. 

  • An accessory to a diesel-electric locomotive, used to increase adhesive weight and allow full power to be applied at a lower speed. It has trucks with traction motors, but lacks a prime mover, being powered by electricity from the mother locomotive, and may or may not have a control cab. 

  • A stranger picked up as a passenger to enable legal use of high occupancy vehicle lanes. 

  • A hitchhiking commuter. 

  • A counterfeit coin, especially one used to steal from vending machines. 

  • A discrete mass of a material that moves as a unit, usually through another material. 

  • A shot of a drink, usually alcoholic. 

verb
  • To hit very hard, usually with the fist. 

  • To drink quickly; to gulp; to down. 

  • To take part in casual carpooling; to form ad hoc, informal carpools for commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. 

  • To make sluggish. 

  • To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel. 

  • To load with a slug or slugs. 

wire

noun
  • A piece of such material; a thread or slender rod of metal, a cable. 

  • Any of the system of wires used to operate the puppets in a puppet show; hence, the network of hidden influences controlling the action of a person or organization; strings. 

  • A knitting needle. 

  • Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. 

  • A telecommunication wire or cable. 

  • An electric telegraph; a telegram. 

  • A hidden listening device on the person of an undercover operative for the purposes of obtaining incriminating spoken evidence. 

  • A fence made of usually barbed wire. 

  • A deadline or critical endpoint. 

  • A metal conductor that carries electricity. 

  • A finish line of a racetrack. 

  • A wire strung with beads and hung horizontally above or near the table which is used to keep score. 

  • The slender shaft of the plumage of certain birds. 

  • A covert signal sent between people cheating in a card game. 

verb
  • To send a message or monetary funds to another person through a telecommunications system, formerly predominantly by telegraph. 

  • To place (a ball) so that the wire of a wicket prevents a successful shot. 

  • To fasten with wire, especially with reference to wine bottles, corks, or fencing. 

  • To set or predetermine (someone's personality or behaviour, or an organization's culture) in a particular way. 

  • To string on a wire. 

  • To add (something) into a system (especially an electrical system) by means of wiring. 

  • To snare by means of a wire or wires. 

  • To install eavesdropping equipment. 

  • To make someone tense or psyched up. See also adjective wired. 

  • To connect, involve or embed (something) deeply or intimately into (something else, such as an organization or political scene), so that it is plugged in (to that thing) (“keeping up with current information about (the thing)”) or has insinuated itself into (the thing). 

  • To add or connect (something) into a system as if with wires (for example, with nerves). 

  • To equip with wires for use with electricity. 

How often have the words slug and wire occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )