English Explanatory Dictionary

wax

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Beeswax.
  2. Earwax.
  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.
  5. The phonograph record format for music.
  6. A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it.
  7. Any of a class of drugs with weed oil and butane as main ingredients; hash oil.
adj
  1. Made of wax.
verb
  1. To coat with wax or a similar material.
  2. To form a wax (a thick maple syrup).
verb
  1. To apply wax to (something, such as a shoe, a floor, a car, or an apple), usually to make it shiny.
  2. 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. To defeat utterly.
  4. To kill, especially to murder a person.
  5. To record.
verb
  1. To greaten.
  2. To increasingly assume the specified characteristic.
  3. To appear larger each night as a progression from a new moon to a full moon.
  4. To move from low tide to high tide.
noun
  1. The process of growing.
noun
  1. An outburst of anger, a loss of temper, a fit of rage.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

wăks /wæks/ wĕks /wɛks/ en-us-wax.ogg en-au-wax.ogg

Word forms

wax waxes waxing waxed wex wox waxen

Etymology

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”), German Low German Wass (“wax”), Luxembourgish Wuess (“wax”), Vilamovian wāhs (“wax”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk voks (“wax”), Faroese vaks (“wax”), Icelandic, Swedish vax (“wax”); and with Lithuanian vaškas (“wax”), Proto-Slavic *voskъ (“wax”).

Synonyms

cerumen polish vinyl record waxen buff shine furbish burnish bump off knock off whack annihilate bag baptize bereave of life blight bring down bury cack compromised to a permanent end croak crush dash deactivate dead demolish destroy dispatch dispose of do do in dust eliminate end eradicate ex exterminate finish finish off flatten grease lay waste to make away with merc mortify neutralize obliterate off pay off pick off polish off pop off punch someone's ticket put an end to put down put someone out of their misery put six feet under put to sleep ravage

Antonyms

wane

Related words

forthwax forwax packwax paxwax paxwaxy taxwax woadwaxen woad-waxen wood-wax wood-waxen woodwax woodwaxen waxen-kernel waxloke

Derived words

ader wax all wax and no wick animal wax anwax Arjun wax baseplate wax bayberry wax beard 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 China wax Chinese wax close as wax cobbler's wax cobblers' wax cotton 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

Translations

Bulgarian: нарастване French: croître German: zunehmen Italian: crescere Portuguese: crescer Spanish: crecer
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