Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
hard-wired \hard"-wired"\, hard wired \hard" wired"\(h[aum]rd"w[imac]rd"), a.
(Computers) Contained within the circuitry of a computer or computer peripheral device, and not changeable by programming; -- of functions; as, error correction is hard-wired into the circuit of the disk drive, so it proceeds very rapidly.
Connected by a continuous electrical wire, rather than through a switch; as, the air-conditioner was hard-wired into the wall circuit, so moving it would require an electrician.
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(Metaph.) Performed by an inborn pattern of neural circuits; instinctive; not learned; as, many bird songs are hard-wired, but some are learned.
People, as the cybernetic metaphor now has it, are ``hard wired'' to do good in order to enhance their own happiness.
--Andrew Delbanco (New York Times Magazine, May 7, 2000; p. 46).
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. (alternative spelling of hardwired English)
Usage examples of "hard-wired".
I read somewhere they're hard-wired to want customers the way people want sex.