Word.ws English Dictionary

down-to-the-wire

down-to-the-wire is the alternative form of down to the wire.

Meaning of down to the wire

Adjective

down to the wire (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) At the very end of a process or project, especially one with a fast-approaching deadline.
    • He was almost done with the paper, but tomorrow's due date meant it would be down to the wire.

See all 2 meanings of down to the wire

Forms of down-to-the-wire

comparativemore down-to-the-wire
superlativemost down-to-the-wire
alternative formdown to the wire

Questions about down-to-the-wire

What is down-to-the-wire the alternative form of?
Down-to-the-wire is the alternative form of down to the wire.

Words near down-to-the-wire in the dictionary

  1. down-to-earth
  2. down-to-earther
  3. down-to-earthers
  4. down-to-earthiness
  5. down-to-earthness
  6. down-to-the-wire
  7. down-town
  8. down-turn
  9. down-turns
  10. down-vote
  11. downable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: down-to-the-wire (page history and authors); down to the wire (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “down-to-the-wire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/down-to-the-wire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.