Adjacent Words

wiretap definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the act of tapping a telephone or telegraph line to get information [syn: wiretap, tap] v
1: tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information; "The FBI was tapping the phone line of the suspected spy"; "Is this hotel room bugged?" [syn: wiretap, tap, intercept, bug]

Merriam Webster's

I. Date: 1904 intransitive verb to tap a telephone or telegraph wire in order to get information transitive verb to tap the telephone of II. noun Date: 1948 1. the act or an instance of wiretapping 2. an electrical connection for wiretapping

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

also wire-tap(wiretaps, wiretapping, wiretapped) If someone wiretaps your telephone, they attach a special device to the line so that they can secretly listen to your conversations. (AM) The coach said his club had wire-tapped the hotel room of a player during a road trip. = bug VERB: V n • Wiretap is also a noun. (in BRIT, use tap) ...tapes of telephone conversations that can have been obtained only by illegal wiretaps. N-COUNT • wiretapping ...allegations of wiretapping.

Moby Thesaurus

attend, attend to, auscultate, be all ears, bend an ear, bug, bugging, cloak-and-dagger work, cock the ears, counterespionage, counterintelligence, eavesdrop, electronic surveillance, espial, espionage, examine by ear, following, give attention, give audience to, give ear, hark, hear, hear out, hearken, heed, intelligence, intelligence work, intercept, lend an ear, listen, listen at, listen in, listen to, military intelligence, observation, secret police, secret service, shadowing, sit in on, spying, stakeout, surveillance, tailing, tap, trailing, wiretapping