haywire means roughly-made, unsophisticated, decrepit (from the use of haywire for temporary repairs). It carries an Arena rating of 1556, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, haywire ranks #88 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #347 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #363 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,155 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
haywire is pronounced /ˈheɪ.waɪ.ə(ɹ)/.
Why “haywire” is a great word
Behaving erratically or uncontrollably, especially of a machine or system, or being of a roughly-made, makeshift, or decrepit nature. From hay (dried grass) + wire (metal thread), the adjectival sense meaning 'poorly equipped, makeshift' is attested from 1905 in New England lumber camps, from the use of baling wire for temporary repairs. Unlike 'ramshackle,' which implies a specific, creaking physical disrepair, or 'malfunctioning,' a neutral term for failure, 'haywire' describes a chaotic, wild, and spastic revolt against function. It is the printing press disgorging pages in a blizzard of backwards text, the old truck lurching forward with a shriek of protesting metal, the office phone system ringing every extension at once before falling utterly silent—a testament to the brittle order we impose on a world forever threatening to fray at the edges.
Etymology
From hay + wire. The original meaning of “likely to become tangled unpredictably or unusably, or fall apart”, as though only bound with the kind of soft, springy wire used to bind hay bales comes from usage in New England lumber camps circa 1905 where haywire outfit became the common term to refer to slap-dash collections of logging tools. To go haywire has since evolved to represent the act of falling apart or behaving unpredictably, as would wire spooled under tension springing into an unmanageable tangle once a piece had been removed from the factory spool, e.g., “he took off the back of his watch, removed a gear and the whole works went haywire.”
adj
- Roughly-made, unsophisticated, decrepit (from the use of haywire for temporary repairs).
- Behaviorally erratic or uncontrollable, especially of a machine or mechanical process.e.g.“It was working fine until it went haywire and wouldn't stop printing blank sheets.”
noun
- Wire used to bind bales of hay.e.g.“MOWERS AND HAY RAKES, HAY PRESSES, HAY TIES AND HAY WIRE.” — 1886 May 6, W. A. Huffman Implement Company, “Superior Lawn Mowers!”, in Fort Worth Daily Gazette, page 7:
verb
- To attach or fix with haywire.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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