or -worker, subs. phr. (political).—A manipulator of party and other interests, working by means more or less secret; a political intriguer. Hence TO PULL THE WIRES = to exercise a commanding secret political influence. Also WIRE-PULLING, subs.

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  1848.  New York Mirror, 5 June. Philadelphia … is filled with WIRE-PULLERS, public opinion manufacturers, embryo cabinet officers, future ambassadors, and the whole brood of political make-shifts.

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  1858.  National Intelligencer, 20 Sept. The WIRE-WORKERS in convention had a deep interest in a particular suit at law, to which their candidate was pledged to give a judgment in their favor, in case of being the judge.

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  1874.  BEETON, The Siliad, 69.

        They and their fathers, and their fathers’ sires,
Had worked the oracle and pulled the WIRES.

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  1879.  FROUDE, Cæsar, 369. It was useless now to bribe the Comitia, to work with clubs and WIRE-PULLERS.

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