Definition of "live wire" [live wire]

• A wire carrying electric current. (noun)
• Informal A vivacious, alert, or energetic person. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Naghma would hand-wrap the live wire around the base of the lightbulb then to make a circuit."
• "He's hot an 'cold at the one time, a live wire in an ice-chest."