Idiom
tickle the wire
Meaning
To create a situation that will encourage the target of a criminal probe to speak and divulge information on a wiretapped telephone.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The detectives hope to tickle the wire to get a confession.”
“The lead investigator decided to tickle the wire by leaking false information to the suspect's associate.”
“By planting a rumor about the missing funds, the agents successfully tickled the wire, prompting the nervous suspect to reveal his location during the recorded call.”
Examples
simple
“The detectives hope to tickle the wire to get a confession.”
contextual
“The lead investigator decided to tickle the wire by leaking false information to the suspect's associate.”
complex
“By planting a rumor about the missing funds, the agents successfully tickled the wire, prompting the nervous suspect to reveal his location during the recorded call.”
Key words
Related idioms
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