English
wax
see also: Wax
Pronunciation
  • enPR: wăks, IPA: /wæks/
  • (obsolete, nonstandard) enPR: wĕks, IPA: /wɛks/
Etymology 1

From Middle English wax, from Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahsą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *woḱ-so-.

Noun

wax

  1. Beeswax.
  2. Earwax.
    Synonyms: cerumen
    What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?
  3. Any oily, water-resistant, solid or semisolid substance; normally long-chain hydrocarbons, alcohols or esters.
  4. Any preparation containing wax, used as a polish.
    Synonyms: polish
  5. (uncountable, music, informal) The phonograph record format for music.
    Synonyms: vinyl, record
    • 1943, Time:
      What really started the corn sprouting on Broadway was a lugubrious tune by Louisiana's Jimmie Davis called It Makes No Difference Now. In the late '30s Decca's Recording Chief David Kapp heard this Texas hit and got it on wax.
  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.
Translations Translations Adjective

wax (not comparable)

  1. Made of wax.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      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.
Synonyms Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English waxen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

wax (waxes, present participle waxing; simple 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.
    Synonyms: buff, shine, polish, furbish, burnish
  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.
    Synonyms: bump off, knock off, whack, Thesaurus:kill
  5. (transitive, archaic, usually, of a musical or oral performance) To record. [from 1900]
Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: depilar
  • Spanish: depilar
Translations Etymology 3

From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxan, from Proto-West Germanic *wahsan, from Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weg-.

Cognate with Scots wax, Western Frisian waakse, Low German wassen, Dutch wassen, German wachsen, Danish - and Norwegian - vokse, Swedish växa, Icelandic vaxa, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌷𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽; and with Ancient Greek ἀέξω, Latin auxilium. It is in its turn cognate with augeo. See eke.

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive, literary) To greaten.
    Antonyms: wane
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [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.
  2. (intransitive, copulative, literary) To increasingly assume the specified characteristic.
    Synonyms: become
    to wax poetic
    to wax wode
    to wax eloquent
    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene v]:
      Ah, ſirrah, by my ſay, it waxes late:
      I’ll to my reſt.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iii], page 257 ↗:
      He waxes desperate with imagination.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 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.
  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, a loss of temper, a fit of rage.
    • 1914, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man , Chapter 1:
      father Arnall's face looked very black but he was not in a wax: he was laughing.
    • 1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York, published 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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