Wick vs Pick - What's the difference?
wick | pick |
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.
* Spenser
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,
* 2009 , Ira Robbins, Kick It Till It Breaks , , ISBN 9780984253913,
To convey or draw off (liquid) by capillary action.
(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.
(curling) To strike (a stone) obliquely; to strike (a stationary stone) just enough that the played stone changes direction.
(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.
(British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) Alive; lively; full of life; active; bustling; nimble; quick.
(British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) Liveliness; life.
(British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) The growing part of a plant nearest to the roots.
(British, dialect, chiefly, Yorkshire) A maggot.
A corner of the mouth or eye.
* 1969 , Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor , Penguin 2011, p. 57:
A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
A choice; ability to choose.
* Lord Lytton
That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
(basketball) A screen.
(lacrosse) An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
(American football) An interception.
(baseball) A good defensive play by an infielder.
(baseball) A pickoff.
(music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
(obsolete) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
(printing, dated) A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
(art, painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
(weaving) The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.
To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.
To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
* Shakespeare
* Cowper
To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
(cricket) To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.
(music) To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
* Dryden
To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
To steal; to pilfer.
* Book of Common Prayer
(obsolete) To throw; to pitch.
* Shakespeare
(dated) To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.
To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
As nouns the difference between wick and pick
is that wick is 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 or wick can be (british|dialect|chiefly|east anglia|and|essex) a farm, especially a dairy farm or wick can be (british|dialect|chiefly|yorkshire) liveliness; life or wick can be a corner of the mouth or eye while pick is a tool used for digging; a pickaxe.As verbs the difference between wick and pick
is that wick is to convey or draw off (liquid) by capillary action while pick is to grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.As an adjective wick
is (british|dialect|chiefly|yorkshire) alive; lively; full of life; active; bustling; nimble; quick.wick
English
(wikipedia wick)Etymology 1
(etyl) weke, wicke; (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- Trim the wick fairly short, so that the flame does not smoke.
- But true it is, that when the oil is spent / The light goes out, and wick is thrown away.
p. 17:
- His wick was stone stiff.
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 wickVerb
(en verb)- The fabric wicks perspiration away from the body.
- The moisture slowly wicked through the wood.
Etymology 2
From earlier (etyl) wik, .Noun
(en noun)Usage notes
* Present in compounds (meaning “village”, “jurisdiction”, or “harbour”), as, bailiwick, Warwick, Greenwick, , etc., also -wich .Etymology 3
From (etyl) .Adjective
(en-adj)- 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
Noun
- I niver knew such an a thing afore in all my wick . — Ashby, 12 July 1875
- Fed close? Why, it's eaten into t' hard wick . (spoken of a pasture which has been fed very close)
Etymology 4
From (etyl) vik.Noun
(en noun)- She considered him. A fiery droplet in the wick of her mouth considered him.
References
* "wick" inBBC - 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
pick
English
(wikipedia pick)Noun
(en noun)- France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
- Take down my buckler and grind the pick on 't.
- (MacKellar)
- so many picks to an inch
Derived terms
* pickaxe * take one's pick * toothpickVerb
(en verb)- Don't pick at that scab.
- He picked his nose.
- It's time to pick the tomatoes.
- She picked flowers in the meadow.
- to pick feathers from a fowl
- to pick rags
- to pick''' the teeth; to '''pick''' a bone; to '''pick''' a goose; to '''pick a pocket
- Did you pick Master Slender's purse?
- He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
- I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
- He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
- He picked a tune on his banjo.
- Why stand'st thou picking ? Is thy palate sore?
- to keep my hands from picking and stealing
- as high as I could pick my lance
- to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.