Wick

How to spell wick

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce wick

What does wick mean?

1. nounThe strip of twisted fibre in a candle or lamp that draws up fuel to sustain the flame.
2. verbTo draw off or absorb liquid by capillary action, as a fabric or fibre does.

Wick in a sentence

• noun

  She trimmed the wick before lighting the candle for dinner.

• verb

  These running shirts wick sweat away from the skin during a workout.

• noun

  The oil lamp would not catch because the wick was too short.

• verb

  Good hiking socks wick moisture so your feet stay dry.

Where does wick come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Wick comes from the Old English weoce, meaning the twist of fibres in a lamp or candle that draws up fuel to feed the flame. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with close relatives in Middle Dutch wieke and Old High German wiohha, all naming a bundle of soft threads. The literal idea throughout has always been a loosely twisted cord that soaks up liquid; this is why the modern textile sense, of fabric that pulls moisture away from the skin, sits so naturally on the same word. The everyday meaning, the central thread of a candle, has stayed remarkably stable for more than a thousand years. The spelling is short and phonetic, although it is easily confused in writing with the unrelated place-name element 'wick' (as in Warwick), which actually derives from the Latin vicus, meaning a village or settlement.

How the word is built

• wick (from Old English weoce: lamp wick, twist of fibre)