wicking
- material for wicks.
Origin of wicking
wick1
- 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.
- to draw off (liquid) by capillary action.
Origin of wick1
Examples from the Web for wicking
Historical Examples
A piece of wicking is drawn into the tube so that the upper end is within 1/4 in.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2Various
Tie a slip knot in the end of the wicking and slip it over one of the corner nails.
Handicraft for GirlsIdabelle McGlauflin
The men worked by the light of torches, which were often merely catsup jugs with wicking in the necks.
The Blazed TrailStewart Edward White
These can then be caulked with oakum, cotton-batting, or wicking, or something of that nature.
Woodworking for BeginnersCharles Gardner Wheeler
Pass the wicking back and forth around the nails first on one side and then the other.
Handicraft for GirlsIdabelle McGlauflin
wicking
- acting to move moisture by capillary action from the inside to the surfacewicking fabric
wick1
- 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
- get on someone's wick British slang to cause irritation to a person
Word Origin
wick2
- archaic a village or hamlet
Word Origin
wick3
- lively or active
- alive or crawlinga dog wick with fleas
Word Origin
Wick
- a town in N Scotland, in Highland, at the head of Wick Bay (an inlet of the North Sea). Pop: 7333 (2001)
Word Origin and History for wicking
wick
n.1
"bundle of fiber in a lamp or candle," Old English weoce, from West Germanic *weukon (cf. Middle Dutch wieke, Dutch wiek, Old High German wiohha, German Wieche), of unknown origin, with no known cognates beyond Germanic. To dip one's wick "engage in sexual intercourse" (in reference to males) is recorded from 1958, perhaps from Hampton Wick, rhyming slang for "prick," which would connect it rather to wick (n.2).
wick
n.2
"dairy farm," now surviving, if at all, as a localism in East Anglia or Essex, it was once the common Old English wic "dwelling place, lodging, abode," then coming to mean "village, hamlet, town," and later "dairy farm" (e.g. Gatwick "Goat-farm"). Common in this latter sense 13c.-14c. The word is a general Germanic borrowing from Latin vicus "group of dwellings, village; a block of houses, a street, a group of streets forming an administrative unit" (see vicinity). Cf. Old High German wih "village," German Weichbild "municipal area," Dutch wijk "quarter, district," Old Frisian wik, Old Saxon wic "village."