We all know that to get on someone's 'wick' is to annoy them. Where does the saying derive from - what has the 'wick' got to do with anything?
get on one's wick/tits vBulletin British
to irritate, annoy or vex. The 'wick' in question, unknown to many speakers, is a now rather archaic shortening of hampton wick, rhyming slang for prxxk (which is nowadays more usually shortened to hampton). In spite of the implied gender difference, both versions of the expression are used indiscriminately by both men and women.
Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, © Tony Thorne 1997
wick The pexxs. From Hamton Wick, rhyming slang for prxxk. Dip the wick is sexual intercourse, a widespread male expression. 'It gets on my wick' i.e. 'it gets on my nerves' has the same root, but the expression is so many stages removed from its origin that the literal meaning pexxs is generally forgotten and women _and_ men use the expression.
Hampton Wick Pexxs. Cockney rhyming slang for 'prxxk' often shortened to Hampton. The name comes from the London suburb, and it is one of the more widely known rhyming slang terms.
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