English
wax
see also: Wax
Pronunciation Noun

wax

  1. Beeswax.
  2. Earwax.
    What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?
  3. Any oily, water-resistant substance; normally long-chain hydrocarbons, alcohols or esters.
  4. Any preparation containing wax, used as a polish.
  5. (uncountable) The phonograph record format for music.
  6. (US, dialect) A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it.
  7. (US, slang) A type of drugs with as main ingredients weed oil and butane; hash oil
Synonyms Translations Translations
  • German: Bohnerwachs
  • Portuguese: cera
  • Spanish: cera
Adjective

wax (not comparable)

  1. Made of wax.
Synonyms Translations Verb

wax (waxes, present participle waxing; past and past participle waxed)

  1. (transitive) To apply wax to (something, such as a shoe, a floor, a car, or an apple), usually to make it shiny.
  2. (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.
  3. (transitive, informal) To defeat utterly.
  4. (transitive, slang) To kill, especially to murder a person.
    • 2009, Dean R. Koontz and Edward Gorman, Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: City of Night, ISBN 9780553593334, 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?"
  5. (transitive, archaic, usually, of a musical or oral performance) To record. [from 1900]
Synonyms Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: depilar
  • Spanish: depilar
Translations Verb

wax (waxes, present participle waxing; past waxed, past participle waxed)

  1. (intransitive, with adjective, literary) To increasingly assume the specified characteristic.
    Synonyms: become
    to wax poetic
    to wax wode
    to wax eloquent
    • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene v]:
      Ah, sirrah, by my ſay, it waxes late: / I’ll to my rest.
    • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii], page 257 ↗:
      He waxes desperate with imagination.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, 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.
  2. (intransitive, literary) To grow.
    Antonyms: wane
    • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene 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.
    • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii], page 155 ↗:
      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.
  3. (intransitive, of the moon) To appear larger each night as a progression from a new moon to a full moon.
  4. (intransitive, of the tide) To move from low tide to high tide.
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Noun

wax (uncountable)

  1. (rare) The process of growing.
Noun

wax (plural waxes)

  1. (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!’
Wax
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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