wick

¹

[wik]

noun

1. a bundle or loose twist or braid of soft threads, or a woven strip or tube, as of cotton or asbestos, which in a candle, lamp, oil stove, cigarette lighter, or the like, serves to draw up the melted tallow or wax or the oil or other flammable liquid to be burned.

verb (used with object)

1. to draw off (liquid) by capillary action.

wick

²

[wik]

noun

Curling.

1. a narrow opening in the field, bounded by other players' stones.

wick

³

[wik]

noun

1. British Dialect.,  a farm, especially a dairy farm.

2. Archaic.,  a village; hamlet.

Wick

⁴

[wik]

noun

1. a town in the Highland region, in N Scotland: herring fisheries.

wick

¹

/ wɪk /

noun

1. a cord or band of loosely twisted or woven fibres, as in a candle, cigarette lighter, etc, that supplies fuel to a flame by capillary action

2. slang,  to cause irritation to a person

wick

²

/ wɪk /

adjective

1. lively or active

2. alive or crawling

   a dog wick with fleas

Wick

³

/ wɪk /

noun

1. a town in N Scotland, in Highland, at the head of Wick Bay (an inlet of the North Sea). Pop: 7333 (2001)

wick

⁴

/ wɪk /

noun

1. archaic,  a village or hamlet

Other Word Forms

• wickless adjective
• wicking noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of wick¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English wek(e), wik(e), wicke, Old English wēoce; cognate with Middle Dutch wiecke, Middle Low German wêke, weike, Old High German wioh, wiohha “lint, wick,” German Wieke, Wike “lint”

Origin of wick²

Origin uncertain

Origin of wick³

First recorded before 900; Middle English wik(e), wek(e), Old English wīc “residence, dwelling, house, village” (compare Old Saxon wīc, Old High German wîch ), from Latin vīcus “village, estate”; cognate with Greek oîkos, woîkos “house”

Word History and Origins

Origin of wick¹

Old English weoce; related to Old High German wioh, Middle Dutch wēke (Dutch wiek )

Origin of wick²

dialect variant of _quick alive

Origin of wick³

Old English wīc; related to -wich in place names, Latin vīcus, Greek oîkos

Example Sentences

Think Wile E. Coyote and the burning wick attached to a bundle of Acme dynamite.

From Salon

Many centres use evaporative cooling systems, where water absorbs heat and evaporates - similar to how sweat wicks away heat from our bodies.

From BBC

If a person is going to betray their partner, the bonfires have a way of lighting that wick and exploding seasons into chaos.

From Salon

He’d even left the gates propped open, knowing that they could otherwise act like candle wicks, guiding fire closer to the house.

From Los Angeles Times

Nguyen’s prose is the wick that ignited the charges he set on our screens.

From Salon