Dictionary

candlewick en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (countable) The wick of a candle.
   • The unsnuffed candlewick was crowned with a tuft of sooty ash, the fire had died down into a few dull red and white embers […] 1865, Isabella Banks, God's Providence House, volume 2, page 72:
   • 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. 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
2. (countable, uncountable) The thread used to make the wicks of candles.
3. (countable, uncountable) A soft cotton yarn that gives a tufted pattern to embroidery.
   • He sat on the candlewick bedspread and a woman came into the room and knelt on the floor in front of him. 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 122:

Forms