[Idiom] wired to the gills

[Saidany]

What is the meaning of idiom 'wired to the gills' tell me, please?

 

[5jj]

What is the meaning of idiom 'wired to the gills' tell me, please?

It could mean, "very high on drugs". More context would help confirm this.

 

[Saidany]

Thanks so much for the reply, give me further explanation, please.

I found this idiom in a book 'All That Matters About Quality' by William B. Miller and Vicki L. Schenck. It's about quality production in stlye of Lean (Japanese's rule in production).
The sentense is 'At my desk, wired to the gills, I punched up some serious rock-n-roll to accompany my word processing. I realized that a fifteen minute break was hardly sufficient time to convert the hand written instructions into standard inspection procedures.'
This was happen after the actor had to manage with disordered volunteers who were working in his cat furniture production project at his house.

 

[5jj]

Then I think my suggestion was wrong. Sorry. Anything else I write would be merely a guess, so I'll leave it to others.

 

[JMurray]

I think "wired to the gills" has these basic meanings.

(1) a person high on drugs or stimulants.
(2) a person or structure connected to the rest of the world through a multitude of electronic and digital communication systems.
(3) a person or structure that is literally heavily wired up. For example a person whose body has many wires attaching it to monitoring equipment.

Here are some quick grabs from Google to illustrate these:

(1)
– Get Your Wings or Toys In the Attic, both awsome albums but the whole time they were all wired to the gills on cocaine.
– I've been used to essentially vibrating from caffiene all day. I've been able to get out of bed and stay standing up because I've been wired to the gills.
– If he weren't wired to the gills on ritalin and adderal. He would never make it through a whole show.
– Wired to the gills on sugar, I quickly reply, “I am in the stretch — I only have to finish up the rum balls, rice crispy treats and butter scotch haystacks…"

(2)
– We're wired to the gills, spending nearly all waking hours in front of TV and computer screens – bombarded, texting, Tweeting, clattering away – now even on airplanes.
– At high-tech conferences where everyone is already wired to the gills with BlackBerry pagers and cellphones and can cope easily with constant connectedness.
– Students say their school has "some of the best technological resources in the nation, [the] excellent classrooms are wired to the gills with laptop, Ethernet and wireless connections..."

(3)
– Many high-rises and apartment and condo complexes are wired to the gills with coaxial cable.
– Wired to the Gills: To calibrate the equipment, he is wearing three different ECG's (heart monitors) and two different blood pressure detectors. The cycle (velargometer) is almost identical to the one on the international space station.

not a teacher

 

[Saidany]

Anyway, I'd like to thanks to Mr.fivejedjon so much.

And thanks so much to JMurray, also.

All of your replies are useful, and they made me have more understanding about this idiom.

 

[Coolfootluke]

I am not a teacher.

"Wired to the gills" is not an idiomatic expression. It is an ill-advised extension of the expression "stuffed to the gills", meaning "full (of food)". You have to imagine a fish who has eaten so much that he can't swallow any more. People have taken this "to the gills" and used it in many similar expressions to mean "to a great degree", very often quite clumsily, as here in "wired to the gills".

 

[5jj]

"Wired to the gills" is not an idiomatic expression. It is an ill-advised extension of the expression "stuffed to the gills", meaning "full (of food)". You have to imagine a fish who has eaten so much that he can't swallow any more. People have taken this "to the gills" and used it in many similar expressions to mean "to a great degree", very often quite clumsily, as here in "wired to the gills".

There are enough examples in Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to make me feel that it must be idiomatic these days. We may not like it, but it's there.

 

[Coolfootluke]

There are enough examples in Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to make me feel that it must be idiomatic these days. We may not like it, but it's there.

I am not a teacher.

I have little experience searching the Corpus, so I might have done it wrong, but I got no hits for "wired to the gills", and 72 for "to the gills". I can accept that "to the gills" has achieved some idomatic status, but not "wired to the gills". Also, that the use of "to the gills" is more or less widespread does not mean that it can be used indiscriminately, in my book.

I am saying that "wired to the gills" sounds stupid, in case I'm not making myself clear, but I am aware that this is just one more precinct heard from. I hope I haven't drifted into taboo territory, making pronouncements that will impair an ESLer, but I think they might profit by the knowledge that at least one American who can type fairly well thinks it's a bonehead expression of deliberate awkwardness that imparts no compensatory vigor.

 

[5jj]

I can accept that "to the gills" has achieved some idomatic status, but not "wired to the gills". Also, that the use of "to the gills" is more or less widespread does not mean that it can be used indiscriminately, in my book.

The corpus gives expressions with 'to the gills' of which you might not disapprove, including, 'filled, packed, loaded, crammed, jammed, stocked, stacked'.

It also gives many suggesting an excess of alcohol or drugs, such as drugged, soused, jacked, gakked (?), smashed, coked, loaded, drunk, wired. It appears to me that this is not an unreasonable extension of the word.

There is one use that makes sense in an external spatial sense: muffled and overcoated to the gills.

When it comes to subsidized, aerobicized, exchanged (as in involved in exchange programs), groomed, baked, I agree that they appear, as yet, unnatural.