# wax
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: wăks, IPA: /wæks/
* (obsolete, nonstandard) enPR: wĕks, IPA: /wɛks/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -æks
* Homophones: whacks; wacks (wine–whine merger)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English wax, from Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahsą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *woḱ-so-.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Woaks (“wax”), West Frisian waaks (“wax”), Dutch was (“wax”), German Wachs (“wax”), Norwegian voks (“wax”); and with Lithuanian vaškas (“wax”), Proto-Slavic *voskъ (“wax”).

#### Noun

wax (countable and uncountable, plural waxes)
* Beeswax.
* Earwax.
    Synonym: (medical term) cerumen
    What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?
* Any oily, water-resistant, solid or semisolid substance; normally long-chain hydrocarbons, alcohols or esters.
* Any preparation containing wax, used as a polish.
    Synonym: polish
* (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.
* (US, dialect) A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it.
* (US, slang) Any of a class of drugs with weed oil and butane as main ingredients; hash oil.
    He was charged with two felonies, for possession of xanax and wax.

##### Derived terms

* ader wax
* all wax and no wick
* animal wax
* anwax
* Arjun wax
* baseplate wax
* bayberry wax
* beeswax
* berry wax
* bikini wax
* bleached wax
* blockout wax
* bone wax
* Born method of wax plate reconstruction
* bowl wax
* boxing wax
* Brazilian wax
* Brazil wax
* butter of wax
* 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 inlay casting wax
* dental 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
* gedda wax
* Geraldton wax
* ghedda wax
* glide wax
* glitterwax
* gondang wax
* grafting wax
* grave wax, grave-wax
* greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella)
* green wax, greenwax
* grip wax
* hair wax
* hard wax
* Hollywood wax
* hot Hungarian wax pepper
* hot wax
* hot-wax flooding
* Hungarian wax pepper
* Indian wax scale
* 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 (Achroia grisella)
* lost wax
* man of wax
* 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 (Myrica californica
* 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
* stacks of wax
* stick to someone like wax
* sumac wax
* surfboard wax
* surf wax
* TE/WAX/RAD
* thermal wax printer
* the whole ball of wax
* tight as wax
* try-in wax
* tubercle bacillus wax
* unwax
* utility wax
* vegetable wax
* virgin wax
* walling wax
* wax acid
* wax alcohol
* wax apple (Syzygium samarangense)
* wax bath
* wax bean, waxbean (Phaseolus vulgaris vars.)
* wax begonia (Begonia cucullata)
* wax-berry, waxberry
* wax-billed
* wax-bill, waxbill (Estrilda spp.)
* waxbird (Bombycilla spp.)
* wax bite
* wax blockage
* wax boot
* wax-bred
* wax-bush (Chimonanthus praecox)
* wax-butter
* wax candle, wax-candle
* wax cap
* wax-chandler
* wax-chandlery, wax-chandry
* wax cloth, wax-cloth, waxcloth
* wax-cluster
* wax-color, wax-colour
* wax-comb, wax comb
* wax crayon
* wax-creeper (Microloma spp.)
* wax-cup
* wax currant
* 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 (Hoya spp.)
* wax form
* wax-gland
* wax gourd (Benincasa hispida)
* 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-leaf privet (Ligustrum spp.)
* wax-leather
* waxless skis
* wax light, wax-light
* wax-like, waxlike
* wax-maker
* wax-making
* wax mallow, waxmallow (Malviscus spp.)
* wax-man
* wax model denture
* wax-mold, wax-mould
* wax moth, wax-moth
* wax motor
* wax museum
* wax myrtle, wax-myrtle (Morella cerifera)
* wax-nose
* wax-opal
* wax out
* wax painting, wax-painting
* wax palm, wax-palm
* wax paper, wax-paper
* wax pattern
* wax pear
* wax pencil
* wax philosophical
* wax pigment
* wax-pine (Agathis spp.)
* wax-pink
* wax plant, wax-plant, waxplant (Hoya carnosa)
* wax play
* wax pocket, wax-pocket
* wax-pod bean
* wax point
* 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-up
* wax vesta
* wax vine
* Waxweb
* wax-weed (Cuphea spp.)
* waxwing (Bombycilla spp.)
* wax wood (Ligustrum lucidum)
* waxwork
* wax-worker
* wax-worm, waxworm
* waxy
* wax yellow
* white wax
* white wax tree (Ligustrum lucidum)
* wool wax
* yellow wax
* yellow wax pepper (Capsicum annuum var.)

##### Translations
#### Adjective

wax (not comparable)
* 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

* waxen

##### Derived terms

See under the noun section above

##### Translations
#### Verb

wax (third-person singular simple present waxes, present participle waxing, simple past and past participle waxed)
* (transitive) To coat with wax or a similar material.
    waxed silk

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

* This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes then please add them! Particularly: “defeat sense”
From Middle English waxen, from the noun (see above).

#### 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.
    Synonyms: buff, shine, polish, furbish, burnish
* (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.
    Synonyms: bump off, knock off, whack; see also Thesaurus:kill
** 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, 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?"
* (transitive, archaic, usually of a musical or oral performance) To record. [from 1900]

##### Derived terms

* shax
* wax down
* waxed
* waxen
* waxer
* waxing
* wax on
* wax someone's tail
* wax the dolphin
* wax up

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 3

From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxan (“to wax, grow, be fruitful, increase, become powerful, flourish”), from Proto-West Germanic *wahsan, from Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną (“to grow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weg- (“to grow, increase”).
Cognate with Scots wax (“to grow”), West Frisian waakse (“to greaten”), Low German wassen, Dutch wassen (“to greaten”), German wachsen (“to greaten”), Danish and Norwegian vokse (“to greaten”), Swedish växa (“to greaten”), Icelandic vaxa (“to greaten”), 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 or (obsolete) wox, past participle waxed or (dialectal, archaic) waxen)
* (intransitive, literary) To greaten.
    Antonym: wane
    Holonym: wax and 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, <be> 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, […].
* (intransitive, copulative, literary) To increasingly assume the specified characteristic.
    Synonyms: grow, become, get
    to wax poetic ― to become increasingly verbose
    to wax wode ― to become angry
    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.
** 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume 2, London: Millar, →OCLC, 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, 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

* Older forms are: 2nd per. sing, waxest (archaic), 3rd per. sing. waxeth (archaic), and plural form waxen (obsolete).
* Alternative simple past form is wex (obsolete) and the alternative past participle is waxen (obsolete).

##### 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
* waxing moon
* wax lyrical
* wax poetic
* wax to man's estate
* wax wode

##### Related terms

* forthwax
* forwax
* packwax, paxwax, paxwaxy
* taxwax
* woadwaxen, woad-waxen, wood-wax, wood-waxen, woodwax, woodwaxen

##### Translations
#### Noun

wax (uncountable)
* (rare) The process of growing.

##### Derived terms

* wax-kernel
* waxless

##### Translations
### Etymology 4

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, 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!’

##### Derived terms

* waxy

### References

* ↑ Bingham, Caleb (1808) “Improprieties in Pronunciation, common among the people of New-England”, in The Child's Companion; Being a Conciſe Spelling-book […] ‎, 12th edition, Boston: Manning & Loring, →OCLC, page 77.

### See also

* waxen-kernel
* waxloke

## Chinook
### Adverb

wax
* the next day

#### References

* Robertson, David Douglas. “Walkie-Talkie, Or, More New Lower Chinookan Etymologies.” Chinook Jargon, 30 Mar. 2018. Accessed 1 Apr. 2023.

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

From Old English weax, from Proto-West Germanic *wahs, from Proto-Germanic *wahsą.

#### Alternative forms

* vax, vex, waxe, waxs, wex, wexe, wexs

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /waks/, /wɛks/

#### Noun

wax (plural waxes)
* wax (beeswax, sealing wax, etc.)
** 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “Here Bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunt́burẏ”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 10, verso:This [Par]doner / hadde heer / as yelow as wex / But smothe it heeng as dooth a stryke of flex […]This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, / but it hung smoothly like a bushel of flax […]

##### Related terms

* grene wax
* medewax
* waxen (“to wax”)

##### Descendants

* English: wax
* Scots: wax

##### References

* “wax, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Etymology 2

A back-formation from waxen (“to grow”).

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /waks/

#### Noun

wax (uncountable)
* (rare) growth, increase

##### Descendants

* English: wax

##### References

* “wax, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Etymology 3
#### Verb

wax
* Alternative form of waxen (“to grow”)

### Etymology 4
#### Verb

wax
* Alternative form of waxen (“to wax”)

## Q'eqchi
### Adjective

wax
* crazy
* rabid

#### Derived terms

* waxo'k (“go crazy”, verb)

### Further reading

* Ch'ina tusleb' aatin q'eqchi'-kaxlan aatin ut kaxlan aatin-q'eqchi' (Guatemala, 1998)

## Somali
### Noun

wax ?
* something