Meanings
plural wirehouses · alternative wire-house · alternative wire house
- CanadaUSbusinessA major brokerage company, generally nationwide, with multiple branches.
Ten years ago, the Wall Street wirehouse brokerage firm seemed unassailable – part of the very firmament underpinning the entire investment industry from coast to coast.
2012, Josh Brown, “Perhaps I’ve Been a Bit Too Harsh…”, Wall Street Journal Financial Adviser, January 25, 2012 - CanadaUSobsoletebusinessA brokerage company with a telegraph line, telephone line, or electronic communication network.
The so-called ‘wire house’ …is a product of the boom times.
1904, N.Y. Evening Post 18 June, 1904 (Financial Section) 1/71 more example
The “market information” is more diversified than formerly, and in many ways the “wire house” can fill a place that the old-style …
1905, The World’s work, volume 9, Doubleday, Page & Co.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
1904, wire + house (“company”), from earlier private-wire house (1894). Originally referred to brokerage companies that owned or leased telegraph lines, so that market information could be transmitted more quickly. Later generalized to “major brokerage”. Wirehouses are now defined by that they have a direct access to "Fed-Fund Wires", which is the system in which all banks and only the big brokerage houses can "wire" money directly from one account to another. Smaller brokerage firms do not have their own wire line, but need to send transactions by transmitting them through a bank's wire system.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
wirehouse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wirehouse
“wirehouse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wirehouse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wirehouse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wirehouse.
Source: wirehouse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.