wax
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: wăks, IPA(key): /wæks/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -æks
- Homophones: whacks, wacks (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Etymology 1
From Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahsą, from Proto-Indo-European *woḱ-so-. Cognate with Dutch was, German Wachs, Norwegian voks; and with Lithuanian vaškas, Proto-Slavic *voskъ (“wax”).
Noun
wax (countable and uncountable, plural waxes)
- Beeswax.
- Earwax.
- What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?
- Any oily, water-resistant substance; normally long-chain hydrocarbons, alcohols or esters.
- Any preparation containing wax, used as a polish.
- (uncountable) The phonograph record format for music.
- (US, dialectal) A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it.
- (US, slang) A type of drugs with as main ingredients weed oil and butane; hash oil
Synonyms
Derived terms
- ader wax
- all wax and no wick
- animal wax
- anwax
- baseplate wax
- bayberry wax
- beeswax
- berry wax
- bikini wax
- bleached wax
- blockout wax
- bone wax
- Born method of wax plate reconstruction
- boxing wax
- Brazil wax
- Brazilian wax
- butter of wax
- California wax myrtle
- candela wax
- candelilla wax
- candle wax
- Carbowax
- carding wax
- carnauba wax
- carving wax
- car wax
- casting wax
- castor wax
- ceresin wax
- cetyl esters wax
- chafe-wax, chafewax, chaff-wax, chaffwax
- Chinese wax
- close as wax
- cobbler's wax, cobblers' wax
- crystalline wax
- cuticle wax
- dental wax
- dental inlay casting wax
- dewax
- earth wax, earthwax
- ear wax, ear-wax, earwax
- emulsifying wax
- epilating wax
- esparto wax
- fig wax
- Finnish yellow wax
- fit like wax
- floor wax
- fossil wax
- French wax
- full up to dolly's wax
- Geraldton wax
- ghedda wax
- glide wax
- glitterwax
- gondang wax
- grafting wax
- grave wax, grave-wax
- greater wax moth
- green wax, greenwax
- grip wax
- hair wax
- hard wax
- hot wax
- hot-wax flooding
- hot Hungarian wax pepper
- Hungarian wax pepper
- inlay casting wax
- inlay casting wax, inlay pattern wax, inlay wax
- insect wax
- Japanese wax
- Japan wax
- keratin wax
- kick wax
- klister wax
- lac wax
- lad of wax, lad o' wax
- lesser wax moth
- lost wax
- man of wax
- medewax, medwax
- microcrystalline wax
- mind your beeswax, mind your own beeswax
- mineral wax
- modeling wax, modelling wax
- montan wax
- mortuary wax
- moustache wax
- myrtle wax
- neat as wax
- none of your beeswax
- nose of wax
- ouricury wax
- Pacific wax myrtle
- palm wax
- paraffin wax, paraffin-wax
- Parowax
- peat wax
- penetrating stain wax
- petroleum wax
- pisang wax
- plant wax
- polen wax
- put on wax
- release wax
- rice bran wax
- rough wax
- scale wax
- sealing-wax, sealing wax
- seal-wax, sealwax
- set-up wax
- shellac wax
- shoemakers' wax
- ski wax
- slack wax
- soybean wax, soy wax
- spermaceti wax
- stick to someone like wax
- surfboard wax
- surf wax
- TE/WAX/RAD
- thermal wax printer
- tight as wax
- try-in wax
- tubercle bacillus wax
- unwax
- utility wax
- vegetable wax
- virgin wax
- walling wax
- wax acid
- wax alcohol
- wax apple
- wax bath
- wax bean, waxbean
- wax begonia
- wax-berry, waxberry
- wax-bill, waxbill
- wax-billed
- waxbird
- wax bite
- wax blockage
- wax boot
- wax-bred
- wax-bush
- wax-butter
- wax candle
- wax cap
- wax-chandler
- wax-chandlery, wax-chandry
- wax cloth, wax-cloth, waxcloth
- wax-cluster
- wax-color, wax-colour
- wax-comb
- wax crayon
- wax-creeper
- wax-cup
- wax cylinder
- wax dip
- wax doll
- wax emulsion
- waxen
- wax end, wax-end
- wax engraving
- wax expansion
- waxey
- wax-eye
- wax-farthing
- wax figure
- wax flower, wax-flower, waxflower
- wax form
- wax-gland
- wax gourd
- wax-hair
- waxhead
- wax-house
- waxie
- wax injection
- wax injector
- wax insect, wax-insect
- wax jack
- wax jambu
- wax lancing
- wax lathe
- waxleaf privet
- wax-leather
- waxless skis
- wax light, wax-light
- wax-like, waxlike
- wax-maker
- wax-making
- wax mallow, waxmallow
- wax-man
- wax model denture
- wax-mold, wax-mould
- wax moth, wax-moth
- wax motor
- wax museum
- wax myrtle, wax-myrtle
- wax-nose
- wax-opal
- wax painting, wax-painting
- wax palm, wax-palm
- wax paper, wax-paper
- wax pattern
- wax pear
- wax pigment
- wax-pine
- wax-pink
- wax plant, wax-plant, waxplant
- wax play
- wax pocket, wax-pocket
- wax-pod bean
- wax print
- wax-proofed
- wax-red
- wax resist, wax-resist
- wax ring
- wax rose
- wax-scot
- wax shoe
- wax-shot
- wax-silver
- wax size
- wax stick
- wax tablet
- wax taper
- wax test
- wax-tipped bougie
- wax tree, wax-tree
- wax-type thermostat
- wax vine
- Waxweb
- wax-weed
- waxwing
- wax wood
- waxwork
- wax-worker
- wax-worm, waxworm
- waxy
- wax yellow
- white wax
- white wax tree
- the whole ball of wax
- wool wax
- yellow wax
- yellow wax pepper
Translations
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Adjective
wax (not comparable)
- Made of wax.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
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Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
wax (third-person singular simple present waxes, present participle waxing, simple past and past participle waxed)
- (transitive) To apply wax to (something, such as a shoe, a floor, a car, or an apple), usually to make it shiny.
- (transitive) To remove hair at the roots from (a part of the body) by coating the skin with a film of wax that is then pulled away sharply.
- (transitive, informal) To defeat utterly.
- (transitive, slang) To kill, especially to murder a person.
- 2005, David L. Robbins, Liberation Road: A Novel of World War II and the Red Ball Express, page 83:
- "I was reassigned over from the 9th when the battalion CO got waxed on the road leading in." Ben kept his dismay to himself. Here was one more officer in the 90th who'd been on the job only hours or days, replacing commanders killed or wounded....
- 2009, Dean R. Koontz and Ed Gorman, Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: City of Night, →ISBN, page 106:
- "You telling me you know who really waxed him and your mom?" / "Yeah," she lied. / "Just who pulled the trigger or who ordered it to be pulled?"
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- (transitive, archaic, usually of a musical or oral performance) To record. [from 1900]
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
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Etymology 2
From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxan (“to wax, grow, be fruitful, increase, become powerful, flourish”), from Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną (“to grow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weg- (“to grow, increase”). Cognate with Scots wax (“to grow”), West Frisian waakse (“to grow”), Low German wassen, Dutch wassen (“to grow”), German wachsen (“to grow”), Danish and Norwegian vokse (“to grow”), Swedish växa (“to grow”), Icelandic vaxa (“to grow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wahsjan, “to grow”); and with Ancient Greek ἀέξειν (aéxein), Latin auxilium. It is in its turn cognate with augeo. See eke.
Verb
wax (third-person singular simple present waxes, present participle waxing, simple past waxed or (archaic) wex, past participle waxed or (dialectal, archaic) waxen)
- (intransitive, with adjective, literary) To increasingly assume the specified characteristic, become.
- c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 5,
- Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late:
- I’ll to my rest.
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Jeremiah 5:27,
- As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, London: Millar, OCLC 833558210, page 289:
- You behold, Sir, how he waxeth Wroth at your Abode here.
- 1885, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 5, in King Solomon's Mines:
- The stars grew pale and paler still till at last they vanished; the golden moon waxed wan, and her mountain ridges stood out against her sickly face.
- 1900, Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie:
- In the night, or the gloomy chambers of the day, fears and misgivings wax strong, but out in the sunlight there is, for a time, cessation even of the terror of death.
- (intransitive, literary) To grow.
- c. 1590-97, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1,
- And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
- And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
- A merrier hour was never wasted there.
- 1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3, lines 11-14,
- For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
- In thews and bulks, but, as this temple waxes,
- The inward service of the mind and soul
- Grows wide withal.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties ; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].
- c. 1590-97, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1,
- (intransitive, of the moon) To appear larger each night as a progression from a new moon to a full moon.
- (intransitive, of the tide) To move from low tide to high tide.
Usage notes
Synonyms
- (to assume specified characteristic): become
Derived terms
- outwax
- over-wax, overwax
- thorough-wax, thoroughwax, thorow-wax
- through-waxen
- unwax
- wax and wane
- wax forth
- wax in age
- wax in eld
- wax lyrical
- wax poetic
- wax to man's estate
- wax wode
- waxing moon
Related terms
Translations
Derived terms
- wax-kernel
- waxless
Etymology 3
Origin uncertain; probably from phrases like to wax angry, wax wode, and similar (see Etymology 2, above).
Noun
wax (plural waxes)
- (dated, colloquial) An outburst of anger.
- 1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York 2007, page 161:
- ‘That's him to a T,’ she would murmur; or, ‘Just wait till he reads this’; or, ‘Ah, won't that put him in a wax!’
- 1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York 2007, page 161:
Derived terms
See also
- waxen-kernel
- waxloke