A wire cutting device (3) for cutting a wire electrode (5), used to generate an electric discharge between it and a workpiece (W), comprising a drive gear (12), a follower gear (13) which meshes with the drive gear and is shiftable in its axial direction relative to the drive gear, an adjustable bias mechanism (17) which presses the follower gear against the drive gear in order to accommodate wire electrode of various diameters, materials and conditions, take-up rollers (10a, 10b) which feed spent wire electrode between the drive gear and the follower gear, and a drive mechanism for driving the drive gear such that the peripheral speed of the drive gear is greater than the speed at which the wire electrode is fed out by the wire take up device. The wire electrode, pinched between the drive gear and the follower gear, is held in place between two adjacent teeth (13d, 13e) of either the drive gear or the follower gear, and the portion of the wire electrode which is held in place is pressed by the teeth (12e) of one gear into the teeth of the other gear, and is broken by means of tensile force. The pressing force of the biasing mechanism is adjustable by means of an adjustment screw (17e).