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• wick
  wick

  noun

  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.
• Wick
  Wick

  noun

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

wick

¹ American  

[wik] / wɪk /

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.

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verb (used with object)

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

wick ² American  

[wik] / wɪk /

noun

Curling.

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

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wick ³ American  

[wik] / wɪk /

noun

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

2. Archaic. a village; hamlet.

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Wick ⁴ American  

[wik] / wɪk /

noun

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

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wick ¹ British  

/ 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

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wick ² British  

/ wɪk /

adjective

1. lively or active

2. alive or crawling

   a dog wick with fleas

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Wick ³ British  

/ 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)

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wick ⁴ British  

/ wɪk /

noun

1. archaic a village or hamlet

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Other Word Forms

• wicking
  noun
• wickless
  adjective

Etymology

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”

Explanation

A wick is the little string in the middle of a candle. When you burn your favorite pumpkin spice candle, you light the wick with a match. Most candle wicks are made of thin, braided cotton that extends throughout the candle's length. As the wick burns, the wax around it melts. Old-fashioned oil lamps also use wicks to draw oil up and allow a flame to burn slowly. This leads to wick as a verb: "to absorb or draw by capillary action." When a liquid flows in a narrow space, that's wicking. Your quick-dry exercise clothes, for example, wick sweat away from your body.

Example Sentences

He showed her how to use one of her shoelaces to fashion a wick.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 25, 2025

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

From Salon • Jul. 20, 2025

The base layer is closest to your skin, so it’s important for the fabric to wick away moisture, she said.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 19, 2024

Trains from Inverness to Aberdeen, Perth and wick were also impacted.

From BBC • Dec. 27, 2023

Then she touched it to the wick of another candle.

From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English