live wire

plural live wires · alternative live-wire · alternative livewire

1. businessAn electrical wire through which there is a flow of electrical current.

   Two boys got electrocuted when a live wire fell on the auto-rickshaw in which they were sitting.

   2006 September 27, “Two boys electrocuted”, in The Hindu, India, retrieved 24 Dec 2008

2. figurativelyAn especially energetic, alert, or vivacious person.

   I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire / Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire

   1977, “Psycho Killer”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads

   4 more examples

   With his thin, eager face and darting hands he was more than a live wire - he was a whole bundle of live wires.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes an Evening in Strange Company”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   Mr. Black is a kindly, gentle, fine individual, but as a leader, an up-to-date fellow, a go-getter—why he just doesn't know the first thing about it. . . . In a growing community like Douglaston we need a live wire.

   1927 December 19, “Will Not Go”, in Time

   She was irresistible—a laughing, chattering live wire, never at a loss for a word.

   2007, Charlaine Harris, Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, →ISBN, page 95

   Ellen Page gives a star-making performance as a 16-year-old live wire who decides to go through with her pregnancy and seeks acceptably well-adjusted, wealthy, punk-rock loving parents for the unborn baby.

   2007 September 10, “Review: Jones, Coens, Penn highlight Toronto”, in CNN

   Synonyms: go-getter, life of the party, self-starter