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# wick

«wick» in Mova's school dictionary: **the string in the middle of a candle or the strip in an…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a wick, wicks); verb (wick away — of fabrics)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A wick is the string in the middle of a candle or the strip in an oil lamp that you light; it soaks up melted wax or oil to keep the flame burning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#m1)

2) To wick (away) is to draw water or sweat away, as some sports clothes do. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons, a candle wick shows capillary action: liquid wax climbs up the wick to the flame. In safety, a long wick makes a big flame; candles must not be left unattended. In British slang, «to get on someone's wick» means to annoy them. Phrases: «trim the wick», «candle wick», «get on someone's wick».

### examples

- Light the wick carefully with a long match. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#x1)
- Melted wax climbs up the wick and feeds the flame. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#x2)
- Trim the wick so the flame is small. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#x3)
- The candle went out when the wick burned down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#x4)
- These sports socks wick sweat away from your feet. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#x5)
- In a science test, water climbed up a paper wick. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/#x6)

### note

Countable noun, plural wicks. Not the same as «wicked» (very bad, or in slang very good). In science, the wick works by capillary action.

### In the corpora

- [Trick birthday candles have a metal powder, magnesium, in the wick that catches fire again from the glowing wick.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/11-the-candle-and-burning/13/)
- [Some party candles have metal salts in the wick, so their flames burn green, red or lilac.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/26-colours-of-fire-fireworks/14/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wick» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wick/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.