telltale vs wire

telltale

noun
  • A bird, the tattler. 

  • A story or fable that has a moral or message. 

  • Something that serves to reveal something else. 

  • One who divulges private information with intent to hurt others. 

  • A mechanical attachment to the steering wheel, which, in the absence of a tiller, shows the position of the helm. 

  • Tattletale; squealer. 

  • A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted. 

  • A length of yarn or ribbon attached to a sail or shroud etc to indicate the direction of the flow of the air relative to the boat. 

  • A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees (factory hands, watchmen, drivers, etc.) by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted. 

  • An indicator, such as a warning light, that serves to warn of a hazard or problem. 

  • A compass in the cabin of a vessel, usually placed where the captain can see it at all hours, and thus inform himself of the vessel's course. 

adj
  • Revealing something, especially something not intended to be known. 

wire

noun
  • The slender shaft of the plumage of certain birds. 

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

  • 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. 

  • 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 telltale and wire occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )