Word.ws English Dictionary

wicking

wicking is the present participle and gerund of wick.

Noun

wicking (plural wickings)

  1. The material of which wicks are made, especially a loosely braided or twisted cord or tape of cotton.
    Synonyms:
    wick
  2. Capillarity, capillary effect, capillary motion.

Meaning of wick

Verb (1)

wick (third-person singular simple present wicks, present participle wicking, simple past and past participle wicked)

  1. (transitive) Of a material (especially a textile): to convey or draw off (liquid) by capillary action.
    • The fabric wicks perspiration away from the body.
  2. (intransitive) Of a material: to convey or draw off liquid by capillary action.
  3. (intransitive) Chiefly followed by through or up: of a liquid: to move by capillary action through a porous material.
    • The moisture slowly wicked through the wood.

Verb (2)

wick (third-person singular simple present wicks, present participle wicking, simple past and past participle wicked)

  1. (England, transitive) To strike (a stationary bowl or stone) with one's own bowl or stone just enough that the former changes direction; to cannon.
    • He vvas the king of a' the Core, / To guard, or dravv, or vvick a bore, […]1787, Robert Burns, “Tam Samson’s Elegy”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC...
  2. (England, intransitive) To strike a stationary bowl or stone with one's own bowl or stone just enough that the former changes direction; to cannon.

See all 39 meanings of wick

Synonyms of wicking

Forms of wicking

pluralwickings

Questions about wicking

What does wicking mean?
Wicking means the material of which wicks are made, especially a loosely braided or twisted cord or tape of cotton.
What is wicking the present participle and gerund of?
Wicking is the present participle and gerund of wick.
What part of speech is wicking?
Wicking is a noun.
What is the plural of wicking?
The plural of wicking is wickings.

Words near wicking in the dictionary

  1. Wickham's striae
  2. Wickhambreaux
  3. Wickhams
  4. wickie
  5. wickies
  6. wicking
  7. wickings
  8. wickiup
  9. wickiups
  10. Wickizer
  11. Wickizers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wicking (page history and authors); wick (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “wicking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wicking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.