wax

English Online Dictionary. What means wax‎? What does wax mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: wăks, IPA^(key): /wæks/
• (obsolete, nonstandard) enPR: wĕks, IPA^(key): /wɛks/
• 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)

1. Beeswax.
2. Earwax.

   Synonym: (medical term) cerumen

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.

   Synonym: polish

6. (uncountable, music, informal) The phonograph record format for music.

   Synonyms: vinyl, record
7. (US, dialect) A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it.
8. (US, slang) A type of drugs with as main ingredients weed oil and butane; hash oil.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

wax (not comparable)

1. Made of wax.

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)

1. (transitive) To coat with wax or a similar material.

   waxed silk

Translations

Etymology 2

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)

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; see also Thesaurus:kill
5. (transitive, archaic, usually of a musical or oral performance) To record. [from 1900]

Derived terms

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)

1. (intransitive, literary) To greaten.

   Antonym: wane
3. (intransitive, copulative, literary) To increasingly assume the specified characteristic.

   Synonym: become

   to wax poetic ― to become increasingly verbose

   to wax wode ― to become angry

   to wax eloquent
4. (intransitive, of the moon) To appear larger each night as a progression from a new moon to a full moon.
5. (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

Related terms

Translations

Noun

wax (uncountable)

1. (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)

1. (dated, colloquial) An outburst of anger, a loss of temper, a fit of rage.

Derived terms

• waxy

References

See also

• waxen-kernel
• waxloke

Chinook

Adverb

wax

1. 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^(key): /waks/, /wɛks/

Noun

wax (plural waxes)

2. wax (beeswax, sealing wax, etc.)

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^(key): /waks/

Noun

wax (uncountable)

2. (rare) growth, increase

Descendants

• English: wax

References

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

Etymology 3

Verb

wax

1. Alternative form of waxen (“to grow”)

Etymology 4

Verb

wax

1. Alternative form of waxen (“to wax”)

Q'eqchi

Adjective

wax

1. crazy
2. 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) [2]

Somali

Noun

wax ?

1. something