steal vs wire

steal

verb
  • To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a hit, walk, passed ball, wild pitch, or defensive indifference. 

  • To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else. 

  • To borrow for a short moment. 

  • To dispossess 

  • To convey (something) clandestinely. 

  • To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement. 

  • To acquire at a low price. 

  • To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely. 

  • To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show. 

  • To move silently or secretly. 

  • take, plagiarize, tell on a joke, use a well-worded expression in one's own parlance or writing 

  • To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully. 

noun
  • A piece of merchandise available at a very low, attractive price. 

  • A stolen base. 

  • Scoring in an end without the hammer. 

  • A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs. 

  • A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team. 

  • The act of stealing. 

wire

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

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

  • 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. 

noun
  • 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. 

  • The slender shaft of the plumage of certain birds. 

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

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