Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Made of or covered with wax.
- adjective Pale or smooth as wax.
- adjective Weak, pliable, or impressionable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Archaic present indicative plural of
wax . - An obsolete or archaic past participle of wax.
- Made of wax; covered with wax: as, a waxen tablet.
- Resembling wax; soft as wax; waxy.
- Easily effaced, as if written in wax.
- In zoology:
- Being or consisting of wax: as, the waxen cells of honeycomb.
- Like wax; waxy.
- Waxed; having wax-like appendages: as, the waxen chatterer (the Bohemian waxwing).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Made of wax.
- adjective Covered with wax; waxed.
- adjective Resembling wax; waxy; hence, soft; yielding.
- adjective (Zoöl.) the Bohemian chatterer.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective UK, dialectal
Grown . - verb Alternative past participle of
wax . - adjective Made of
wax ; covered with wax. - adjective Of or pertaining to
wax . - adjective Having the
pale smooth characteristics of wax,waxlike ,waxy . - adjective rare Easily
effaced , as if written in wax.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having the paleness of wax
- adjective made of or covered with wax
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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What might be called the waxen period had set in, and the high colourless features seemed to be modelled in that soft, semi-transparent material.
The Witch of Prague 1881
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The trees around a Shintô shrine are specially under the protection of the god to whom the altar is dedicated; and, in connection with them, there is a kind of magic still respected by the superstitious, which recalls the waxen dolls, through the medium of which sorcerers of the middle ages in Europe, and indeed those of ancient Greece, as Theocritus tells us, pretended to kill the enemies of their clients.
Tales of Old Japan Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford Redesdale 1876
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Bessy's features seemed to shrink into a kind of waxen quietude -- as though her face were seen under clear water, a long way down.
The Fruit of the Tree Edith Wharton 1899
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Yes, she is a heavy pink and white bloom, full, scented, a little waxen.
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Mann scrapes the ring on his finger and the waxen rail
K. & V. Mann (*), 1986 Ivan R. 2011
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Here and there that woods harlequin, the madrone, permitting itself to be caught in the act of changing its pea-green trunk to madder-red, breathed its fragrance into the air from great clusters of waxen bells.
All Gold Cañon 2010
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When did brands start positioning themselves as families, communities, their offices big picnic blankets of giggling executives, their products carved from whimsy and solid, waxen love?
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Playing the malevolent, abrasive junkie single mother of a missing kidnap victim, a slatternly, slack-jawed racist, Ryan adopted a drunkard's waxen pallor, honked up the full braying working-class Boston accent and, in those seven minutes, ran a gamut of emotions, from sullen resentment to inappropriate levity and a final descent into abject sobbing – a magnificent shipwreck of a performance.
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Many had been built crudely and with such haste that they were too short for the occupants, whose pale, waxen feet stuck out.
A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011
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Many had been built crudely and with such haste that they were too short for the occupants, whose pale, waxen feet stuck out.
A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011
yarb commented on the word waxen
Char smoothed the back of his finger gently over the brow (the skin was unpliable, cool, waxen) then leered, and between thumb and grimy palm grasped the yellow lardy chin and shook it with hatred.
- Peter Reading, C, 1984
August 2, 2008