Word: wax down Part of Speech: verb 1. To rub or polish with wax to create a slick, shiny and/or waterproof coating; to wax. Example: We're waxin' down our surfboards / We can't wait for June Example: So the next afternoon we weren't doing anything and it was fairly warm, we got rags and waxed down his plane. 2. To stiffen by coating or permeating with wax. Example: The paper should be as thin and tough as possible – for example, typewriter paper, The equal sheets thus prepared must now be waxed down by aid of a hot iron on the carefully prepared wooden boards, paper side out. Example: In picking up the loops, the weaver probably used some kind of bodkin, or possibly she knew how to wax down the ends of her threads to a fine point, 3. To coat (hair) with an oily or waxy substance in order to hold it in place. Example: She divided the rest of the hair into 4 equal parts, twisted each part and tied it into 3 knots. Those she waxed down to my skull with 4 pins to the knot . Example: That dark-skinned, hollow-chested, small-eyed, slight young man under medium height, with his black hair parted in the middle and always kept flat as if waxed down, was no match for the wiry, healthy lad with uncommon staying-powers and the unschooled passion of a fury. 4. To generate a layer of wax that completely covers. Example: If the hive is suspected of being queenless, a queen-cell from another hive, with the pupa ready to hatch out, is sometimes placed in it, when, if the new queen is required, the bees will take to her, but should they have a queen and do not require a new one, they will wax down the queen-cell that was inserted so that the young queen cannot hatch out; a specimen of a cell so waxed down is exhibited. Example: By the description of his cover for the bees to wax down, it was not properly braced, as the dovetailed end is made by different manufacturers. 5. To seal over with wax, in order to make airtight and watertight. Example: We complied instantly with these instructions, and digging, soon found a bottle corked and waxed down, wherein was a letter from Captain Cook informing us of their arrival at this place on the 3rd instant, and departure on the 24th, and that they intended spending a few days in the entrance of the straits to look for us. Example: Solid caustic potash must always be kept in well-stoppered bottles, which when not in use may be waxed down. 6. To paste into place using wax. Example: For delicate small-scale line-drawing, the thick blue paper, such as is used for ledgers, &c., imperial size, answers exceedingly well; but it does not bear damp-stretching without injury, and should be merely pinned or waxed down to the board. Example: Then muslin was waxed down onto the surface, to bind it, and the panel was lifted in one piece. 7. To taper off; to gradually quiet or diminish. Example: See how sin, even from Adam to Cain, had grown up to murder and defiance of God! See how it then waxed down to the death of all flesh in the judgment of the flood! Example: You may remember — and this is the last example I will give as I begin to wax down — there was this incredible problem back in the 1980s of the 747s across the Pacific at 40,000 feet suddenly losing all four engines in mid-flight.