/ˈwæksən/
OriginFrom Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxen, ġeweaxen, from Proto-Germanic *wahsanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną (“to wax, grow, increase”), equivalent to wax + -en (past participle ending).
- UK, dialectalGrown.
- Made of or covered with wax.
“a waxen tablet”
“She is fair; and so is Julia that I love—
That I did love, for now my love is thaw’d;
Which, like a waxen image, ’gainst a fire,
Bears no impression of the thing it was.”
“[T]o the altar each man brought some goodly offering, […] a waxen honey-comb / Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the bee / Had ceased from building, […]”
- Of or pertaining to wax.
- Having the pale smooth characteristics of wax, waxlike, waxy.
“It was hard to imagine that the broken thing had once been new; that those withered, waxen cheeks had been fresh and tinted. That her eyes had long ago glinted with laughter.”
- Easily molded, influenced, or bent; yielding, impressible.
“The traveller hears me now and then,
And sometimes harshly will he speak:
‘This fellow would make weakness weak,
And melt the waxen hearts of men.’”
- rareEasily effaced, as if written in wax.
- alternative, archaic, form-of, participle, pastalternative past participle of wax.
- form-of, obsolete, plural, presentplural simple present of wax
“And they that occupye them bene in moche ſauegarde, and hauen greate conſolacyon, and bene the readyer vnto all goodnes, the ſlower to all euyll, and yf they haue done any thing amyſe, anone euen by t”
“When the rayne is faln, the cloudes wexen cleare.”
“and then the whole Quire hould their hippes, and loffe,
and waxen in their myrth, and neeze, and ſweare
a merrier hower was neuer waſted there.”
Formsmore waxen(comparative) · most waxen(superlative)