candle-wick

candle-wick (countable and uncountable, plural candle-wicks)

1. Archaic form of candlewick.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1843 January 14 (date sealed), Nathaniel Card, “Specification of the Patent Granted to Nathaniel Card, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Candle-wick Manufacturer, for Certain Improvements in the Manufacture of Candle-wick, and in Machinery or Apparatus for Producing such Manufacture”, in The Repertory of Patent Inventions, and Other Discoveries and Improvements in Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture; […], volume II (Enlarged Series), number V, London: Published for the proprietor, by Alex[ander] Macintosh, […]; and sold by Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., […]; J[ohn] Weale, […]; and G. Hebert, […], published November 1843, →OCLC, pages 292–293:

     My improvements in the manufacture of candle-wick apply particularly to the common or well-known plaited or platted wick, used in candles, for supporting combustion, and consist, / Firstly, in the introduction of one, two, or more straight distended warps, to form the base of a platted or woven candle-wick, such wick being made from three or more strands of cotton; […]

   • [1874], S. W[arren], “The Wool-bearing Shrub”, in Cotton, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York, N.Y.: Pott, Young, & Co., →OCLC, page 14:

     What they did not want for candle-wicks, they employed in stuffing and wadding their doublets and other articles of dress.

   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXIII, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 258:

     He showed Huck the fragment of candle-wick perched on a lump of clay against the wall, and described how he and Becky had watched the flame struggle and expire.