Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Made of or resembling flax.
  • adjective Having the pale grayish-yellow color of flax fiber.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To beat or thrash.
  • Of flax; made of flax: as, flaxen thread.
  • Resembling flax in color, as hair; fair and flowing like flax.
  • Pertaining to flax.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Made of flax; resembling flax or its fibers; of the color of flax; of a light soft straw color; fair and flowing, like flax or tow

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Made of or resembling flax fibers.
  • adjective a pale yellow brown; the colour of dried flax stalks and of the fiber obtained therefrom.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of hair color; pale yellowish to yellowish brown

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Her hair was a dark shade of the colour usually termed flaxen, whose clustering ringlets suited admirably with her fair complexion, and with the playful, yet simple, expression of her features.

    A Legend of Montrose 2008

  • My hair would have been called flaxen by a poet, and until recently had fallen almost to my waist.

    Changeling Galenorn, Yasmine 2007

  • Her hair was a dark shade of the colour usually termed flaxen, whose clustering ringlets suited admirably with her fair complexion, and with the playful, yet simple, expression of her features.

    A Legend of Montrose 1871

  • Her hair was a dark shade of the colour usually termed flaxen, whose clustering ringlets suited admirably with her fair complexion, and with the playful, yet simple, expression of her features.

    A Legend of Montrose Walter Scott 1801

  • Their hair in general is black, but in some it is brown, in some red, and in others flaxen, which is remarkable, because the hair of all other natives of Asia, Africa, and America, is black, without a single exception.

    A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time Robert Kerr 1784

  • a green stuff, with a brown holland apron and bib over it, quite straight all the way down, for she had no particular waist, and her hair, which was of a funny kind of flaxen grey, she bundled up and tied round, without any cap or anything else on her head.

    Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • a funny kind of flaxen grey, she bundled up and tied round, without any cap or anything else on her head.

    Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • Heavens, before I was of the flaxen-haired Aesir, who dwelt in

    Chapter 21 2010

  • And I have lain in the barley, sick with yearning for her, just to see her pass and glut my eyes with the swaying wonder of her and of her hair, black with the night, or brown or flaxen, or all golden-dusty with the sun.

    Chapter 21 2010

  • When I think back at all, rather do I think far back to my childhood at the skirts of my milk - skinned, flaxen-haired, buxom English mother.

    Chapter 15 2010

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  • Citation on peruke.

    September 18, 2008