waxen
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxen, ġeweaxen, from Proto-Germanic *wahsanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną (“to wax, grow, increase”), equivalent to wax + -en (past participle ending).
Verb
waxen
- alternative past participle of wax.
- (obsolete) plural simple present form of wax
- 1540, Great Bible, Second Edition, Preface
- And they that occupye them been in muche savegarde, and have greate consolacyon, and been the readyer unto all goodnesse, the slower to all evyll: and if they have done anything amysse, anone even by the sight of the bookes, theyr conscvences been admonished, and they waxen sory and ashamed of the facte.
- 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender
- When the rayne is faln, the cloudes wexen cleare.
- 1590-97, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i
- 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.
- 1540, Great Bible, Second Edition, Preface
Etymology 2
From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxen (“waxen, made of wax”), equivalent to wax + -en (“made of”).
Adjective
waxen (comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)
- Made of wax; covered with wax.
- a waxen tablet
- c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene 4,
- She is fair; and so is Julia that I love—
- That I did love, for now my love is thaw’d;
- Which, like a waxen image, ’gainst a fire,
- Bears no impression of the thing it was.
- Of or pertaining to wax.
- Having the pale smooth characteristics of wax, waxlike, waxy.
- 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, Penguin, 1969, Chapter 28, p. 185,
- It was hard to imagine that the broken thing had once been new; that those withered, waxen cheeks had been fresh and tinted. That her eyes had long ago glinted with laughter.
- 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, Penguin, 1969, Chapter 28, p. 185,
- (rare) Easily effaced, as if written in wax.
Derived terms
- waxen chatterer
- waxen image
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