adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Resembling wire.

   "My hair was very wiry in my teens."

2. 2
   Thin, muscular and flexible.

   "Don't fight him. He may be small, but he's wiry."

Adjective

1. 1
   of hair that resembles wire in stiffness wordnet
2. 2
   lean and sinewy wordnet
3. 3
   of or relating to wire wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

hairystringyable-bodiedathleticbrawnybroad shouldered

Example

More examples

"Being a wiry person, he is thin but still looks strong."

Etymology

From wire + -y.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.