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Definition of "wire-tapper" [wire-tapper]

  • One who ‘taps’ a telegraph-wire, that is, reads by illicit means the messages passing over it; also, one who, for fraudulent purposes, professes to have secured private information in this way. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

Use "wire-tapper" in a sentence
  • "He was a good little runner, and he done his best; but when I breasted the tape I won a quick-claim deed to his loose change, to a brand-new office over a drug-store, and to enough nickel-plated pliers for a wire-tapper."
  • "He recalled his chance meeting with MacNutt, the wire-tapper, and their partnership of privateer forces in that strange campaign against Penfield, the alert and opulent poolroom king, who had seemed always able to defy the efforts and offices of a combative and equally alert district-attorney."
  • "John Larsen, a well-known "wire-tapper," arrested some dozen times within a year or two for similar offences."