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candlewick

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: candle-wick

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English candelwyk, candelwike, from Old English candelweoc, candelwēoce (candlewick), equivalent to candle +‎ wick.

Noun

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candlewick (countable and uncountable, plural candlewicks)

  1. (countable) The wick of a candle.
    • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, [], London: [] W[illiam] Taylor [], →OCLC:
      Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of my own making (for I made very good candles now of goat’s tallow, but was hard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, and sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles); and going into this low place I was obliged to creep upon all-fours as I have said, almost ten yards—which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold enough, considering that I knew not how far it might go, nor what was beyond it.
    • 1865, Isabella Banks, God's Providence House, volume 2, page 72:
      The unsnuffed candlewick was crowned with a tuft of sooty ash, the fire had died down into a few dull red and white embers []
  2. The thread used to make the wicks of candles.
  3. A soft cotton yarn that gives a tufted pattern to embroidery.
    • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 122:
      He sat on the candlewick bedspread and a woman came into the room and knelt on the floor in front of him.

Translations

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