wick
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɪk/
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: wicker
form: more wick
form: wickest
form: most wick
Etymology: A variant of quick.
Senses: examples: text: Well! yo must know I were in th' Infirmary for a fever, and times were rare and bad; and there be good chaps there to a man, while he's wick, whate'er they may be about cutting him up at after.
ref: 1848, [Elizabeth Gaskell], chapter VIII, in Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life. […] (Chapman and Hall’s Series of Original Works of Fiction, Biography, and General Literature), volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 127:
text: Thinks Abey, t' oud codger 'll nivver smoak t' trick, / I'll swop wi' him my poor deead horse for his wick, […]
ref: 1845, “The Yorkshire Horse-dealer”, in James Henry Dixon, editor, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages. […]; XVII), London: Printed for the Percy Society, by T. Richards, […], →OCLC, page 215:
text: T' wickest young chap at ivver Ah seen.
ref: 1868, J[ohn] C[hristopher] Atkinson, “Wick, adj.”, in A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect: Explanatory, Derivative, and Critical, London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 573:
english: The liveliest young chap as ever I've seen.
translation: The liveliest young chap as ever I've seen.
bold_translation_offsets: 4
13
text: I thowt they was dead last back end but they're wick enif noo.
ref: 1877, Edward Peacock, “Wick, adj.”, in A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire (Glossaries of Lincolnshire and Sussex Words; Series C (Original Glossaries, and Glossaries with Fresh Additions); VI), London: […] [F]or the English Dialect Society, by Trübner & Co, […], →OCLC, page 275, column 1:
text: "Are you afraid of going across the churchyard in the dark?" a young lady inquired of an old woman. "Lor' bless yer noä miss! It isn't dead uns I'm scar'd on, it's wick uns." […] I heard at the village of Yaddlethorpe, some five years after, a mother scolding her child. Among other threats, she said, "I'll skin ye wick." This threat with us usually takes the more modern form of "I'll skin ye alive."
ref: 1905 August 26, Edward Peacock, “Replies. Yorkshire Dialect.”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., volume IV (10th Series), number 87, London: John C[ollins] Francis, […], and printed by John Edward Francis, […], →OCLC, page 170, column 2:
text: "That one [a tree]?" she said. "Is that one quite alive—quite?" / Dickon curved his wide smiling mouth. / "It's as wick as you or me," he said; and Mary remembered that Martha had told her that "wick" meant "alive" or "lively." / "I'm glad it's wick!" she cried out in her whisper. "I want them all to be wick. Let us go round the garden and count how many wick ones there are."
ref: 1910 November – 1911 August, Frances Hodgson Burnett, “The Nest of the Missel Thrush”, in The Secret Garden, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, published 1911, →OCLC, page 130:
text: [T]his 'oss [horse] is as wick as an eel. Could kick a fly's eye out.
ref: 1970, James Herriot [pseudonym; James Alfred Wight], chapter 9, in If Only They Could Talk, London: Pan Books, published 1975, →ISBN, page 74:
glosses: Synonym of quick (“alive, living; also, active, lively”).
synonyms: word: quick
extra: alive, living; also, active, lively
Related terms: wicken