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Nick vs Wick - What's the difference?

nick | wick |

In archaic terms the difference between nick and wick

is that nick is a nixie, or water-sprite while wick is a village; hamlet; castle; dwelling; street; creek; bay; harbour; a place of work, jurisdiction, or exercise of authority.

In transitive terms the difference between nick and wick

is that nick is to mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in while wick is to convey or draw off (liquid) by capillary action.

As a proper noun Nick

is a diminutive of the male given name Nicholas.

As an adjective wick is

alive; lively; full of life; active; bustling; nimble; quick.

nick

English

(wikipedia nick)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small cut in a surface.
  • # A particular point or place considered as marked by a nick; the exact point or critical moment.
  • in the nick of time
  • #*, II.20:
  • Truely he flies when he is even upon the nicke , and naturally hasteneth to escape it, as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe, and feareth to sinke into it.
  • #* Howell
  • to cut it off in the very nick
  • # (printing, dated) A notch cut crosswise in the shank of a type, to assist a compositor in placing it properly in the stick, and in distribution.
  • Meanings connoting something small.
  • # (cricket) A small deflection of the ball off the edge of the bat, often going to the wicket-keeper for a catch.
  • # (real tennis) The point where the wall of the court meets the floor.
  • # (genetics) One of the single-stranded DNA segments produced during nick translation.
  • (archaic) A nixie, or water-sprite.
  • * 1879 , Viktor Rydberg, The Magic of the Middle Ages (p.201)
  • *:imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks , river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire.
    • a user's reserved nick on an IRC network
  • (UK, slang) In the expressions in bad nick'' and ''in good nick : condition.
    • The car I bought was cheap and in good nick .
  • * '>citation
  • (British, slang) A police station or prison.
    • He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.
    He's just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

    Derived terms

    * in the nick of time

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a nick or notch in; to cut or scratch in a minor way.
    • I nicked myself while I was shaving.
  • # To make a cross cut or cuts on the underside of (the tail of a horse, in order to make the animal carry it higher).
  • # To mar; to deface; to make ragged, as by cutting nicks or notches in.
  • #* Prior
  • And thence proceed to nicking sashes.
  • #* Shakespeare
  • The itch of his affection should not then / Have nicked his captainship.
  • To suit or fit into, as by a correspondence of nicks; to tally with.
  • * Camden
    • Words nicking and resembling one another are applicable to different significations.
  • # To hit at, or in, the nick; to touch rightly; to strike at the precise point or time.
  • #* L'Estrange
  • The just season of doing things must be nicked , and all accidents improved.
  • # To throw or turn up (a number when playing dice); to hit upon.
  • #* {{quote-book, year=1773
    • , author=Oliver Goldsmith , title=She Stoops to Conquer , text=My old luck: I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following.}}
  • # (cricket) to hit the ball with the edge of the bat and produce a fine deflection
  • (obsolete) To nickname; to style.
  • * Ford
    • For Warbeck, as you nick him, came to me.
  • (slang) To steal.
    • Someone's nicked my bike!
  • (transitive, British, slang) To arrest.
    • The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he'd broken into.

    wick

    English

    (wikipedia wick)

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) weke, wicke; (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bundle, twist, braid, or woven strip of cord, fabric, fibre/fiber, or other porous material in a candle, oil lamp, kerosene heater, or the like, that draws up liquid fuel, such as melted tallow, wax, or the oil, delivering it to the base of the flame for conversion to gases and burning; any other length of material burned for illumination in small successive portions.
    • Trim the wick fairly short, so that the flame does not smoke.
  • * Spenser
    • But true it is, that when the oil is spent / The light goes out, and wick is thrown away.
  • Any piece of porous material that conveys liquid by capillary action; a strip of gauze placed in a wound to serve as a drain.
  • (curling) A narrow opening in the field, flanked by other players' stones.
  • (curling) A shot where the played stone touches a stationary stone just enough that the played stone changes direction.
  • (slang) Penis.
  • * 2008 , Marcus Van Heller, Nest of Vixens , ISBN 9781596549449, p. 17:
    • His wick was stone stiff.
  • * 2009 , Ira Robbins, Kick It Till It Breaks , , ISBN 9780984253913, p. 130:
    • Her laugh wasn't cruel in tone, but it cut through Husk like a scalpel, withering his wick even further.
    Derived terms
    * get on someone's wick

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To convey or draw off (liquid) by capillary action.
    • The fabric wicks perspiration away from the body.
  • (of a liquid) To traverse ( be conveyed by capillary action) through a wick or other porous material, as water through a sponge. Usually followed by through.
    • The moisture slowly wicked through the wood.
  • (curling) To strike (a stone) obliquely; to strike (a stationary stone) just enough that the played stone changes direction.

    • Etymology 2

    From earlier (etyl) wik, .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British, dialect, chiefly, East Anglia, and, Essex) A farm, especially a dairy farm.
  • (archaic) A village; hamlet; castle; dwelling; street; creek; bay; harbour; a place of work, jurisdiction, or exercise of authority.
    • Usage notes
    * Present in compounds (meaning “village”, “jurisdiction”, or “harbour”), as, bailiwick, Warwick, Greenwick, , etc., also -wich .
    Related terms
    * vicinity * villa * village * -wich

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) Alive; lively; full of life; active; bustling; nimble; quick.
    • as wick as an eel
    T' wickest young chap at ivver Ah seen.
    He's a strange wick bairn alus runnin' aboot.
    I'll skin ye wick ! (skin you alive)
    I thowt they was dead last back end but they're wick enif noo.
    "''Are you afraid of going across the churchyard in the dark?" "Lor' bless yer noä miss! It isn't dead uns I'm scar'd on, it's wick uns."
    I'll swop wi' him my poor dead horse for his wick .'' — ''Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England , page 210
    Related terms
    * wicken

    Noun

  • (British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) Liveliness; life.
    • I niver knew such an a thing afore in all my wick . — Ashby, 12 July 1875
  • (British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) The growing part of a plant nearest to the roots.
    • Fed close? Why, it's eaten into t' hard wick . (spoken of a pasture which has been fed very close)
  • (British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) A maggot.

    • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) vik.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A corner of the mouth or eye.
  • * 1969 , Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor , Penguin 2011, p. 57:
    • She considered him. A fiery droplet in the wick of her mouth considered him.

    References

    * "wick" in BBC - North Yorkshire - Voices - Glossary * Notes and Queries , Tenth Series, Vol. IV, 1905, page 170 * A. Smythe Palmer, Folk-Etymology, A Dictionary of verbal corruptions or words perverted in form or meaning, by false derivation or mistaken analogy , 1882, page xxii * John Christopher Atkinson, A glossary of the Cleveland dialect: explanatory, derivative, and critical , 1868, page 573 * W. D. Parish, Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect and Collection of Provincialisms in use in the County of Sussex, 1877, page 274-5