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🕵️ Secret listening 🕵️ To listen secretly 📞 Listening device
to wiretap

to wiretap

5 7.5
To secretly listen to someone's phone calls
  • verb
  • /ˈwaɪərˌtæp/
translation icon : intervenir
  • In order to monitor potential threats, the FBI often needs to wiretap phones during ongoing investigations.
  • wiretap a phone
  • warrant to wiretap
  • permission to wiretap

I am not opposed to the FBI wiretapping if they suspect criminal behavior.

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Examples

  • Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is "going dark" as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.

    Blog text (28)

  • The changes would allow companies to respond quickly to wiretap requests from local, state, and federal authorities.

    Blog text (33)

  • As a police officer, I can tell you that none of us want the responsibility of being able to wiretap at will.

    Dragnet (1954)

  • "The bad guys know we can wiretap," he notes, "but they still talk on the phone."

    Academic text (1997)

  • President, I need your permission to wiretap his phone.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Only a few years ago, a President of the United States could not wiretap your phone without the signature of a judge.

    Alene B. Duerk: The First Woman Admiral (2020)

  • How many Americans could be convinced that not being able to wiretap will endanger American lives?

    Blog text (9)

  • Days after the attacks, Bush authorized the NSA to wiretap people within the United States without a warrant.

    Blog text (22)

  • Additionally, we now have the authority to wiretap for price fixing, market allocation, bid rigging, and deceptive telemarketing.

    Academic text (2001)

  • How come "conservatives" don't trust government to oversee their health care, but they do trust government to wiretap, indefinitely detain, and even kill U.S. citizens without transparency or due process?

    Blog text (23)

Synonyms

to intercept
vsto wiretap
65 7.3

To secretly listen to phone calls or messages to get information

is narrower and focuses on secretly listening to phone conversations
to tap
vsto wiretap
62 8.2

To secretly listen to someone's phone calls

is mainly for secretly listening to phone conversations during investigations
to bug
vsto wiretap
12 7.5

To secretly put a small microphone in a place to listen

is focused on secretly listening to telephone conversations via a line connection

How Invasive

to wiretap
5 7.5
to monitor
627 3.5
to eavesdrop
23 5.0
to listen in
  • Informal
57 5.0
to overhear
175 1.6

Surface Forms

wiretap infinitive
wiretapped past
wiretapped past participle
wiretapping present participle
wiretaps third person singular

Etymology

The word wiretap comes from wire ('a thin metal thread used in phone lines') and tap ('to make a small connection to get something'). So to wiretap someone is to secretly connect to their line to listen to their phone conversations.