Wax

[wæks]

Definition

(noun.) any of various substances of either mineral origin or plant or animal origin; they are solid at normal temperatures and insoluble in water.

(verb.) go up or advance; 'Sales were climbing after prices were lowered'.

(verb.) increase in phase; 'the moon is waxing'.

(verb.) cover with wax; 'wax the car'.

Typed by Adele--From WordNet

Definition

(v. i.) To increase in size; to grow bigger; to become larger or fuller; -- opposed to wane.

(v. i.) To pass from one state to another; to become; to grow; as, to wax strong; to wax warmer or colder; to wax feeble; to wax old; to wax worse and worse.

(n.) A fatty, solid substance, produced by bees, and employed by them in the construction of their comb; -- usually called beeswax. It is first excreted, from a row of pouches along their sides, in the form of scales, which, being masticated and mixed with saliva, become whitened and tenacious. Its natural color is pale or dull yellow.

(n.) Hence, any substance resembling beeswax in consistency or appearance.

(n.) Cerumen, or earwax.

(n.) A waxlike composition used for uniting surfaces, for excluding air, and for other purposes; as, sealing wax, grafting wax, etching wax, etc.

(n.) A waxlike composition used by shoemakers for rubbing their thread.

(n.) A substance similar to beeswax, secreted by several species of scale insects, as the Chinese wax. See Wax insect, below.

(n.) A waxlike product secreted by certain plants. See Vegetable wax, under Vegetable.

(n.) A substance, somewhat resembling wax, found in connection with certain deposits of rock salt and coal; -- called also mineral wax, and ozocerite.

(n.) Thick sirup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple, and then cooling.

(v. t.) To smear or rub with wax; to treat with wax; as, to wax a thread or a table.

Checked by Casey

Synonyms and Synonymous

v. a. Cere, smear with wax.

v. n. [1]. Increase (as the moon).[2]. Grow, become, come to be, get to be.

Checked by Lanny

Definition

n. the name given to some animal and vegetable substances and even to one or two mineral bodies (e.g. ozokerite) which more or less resemble beeswax both in their appearance and in their physical properties: the fat-like yellow substance produced by bees and used by them in making their cells: any substance like it as that in the ear: the substance used to seal letters: that used by shoemakers to rub their thread: in coal-mining puddled clay: a thick sugary substance made by boiling down the sap of the sugar-maple and cooling by exposure to the air: (coll.) a passion.—v.t. to smear or rub with wax.—ns. Wax′-bill one of various small spermestine seed-eating birds with bills like sealing-wax; Wax′-chand′ler a maker or dealer in wax candles; Wax′-cloth cloth covered with a coating of wax used for table-covers &c. a popular name for all oil floorcloths; Wax′-doll a child's doll having the head and bust made of hardened beeswax.—adj. Wax′en made of wax like wax easily effaced.—ns. Wax′-end better Waxed end a strong thread having its end stiffened by shoemakers' wax so as to go easily through the hole made by the awl; Wax′er one who or that which waxes; Wax′-flow′er a flower made of wax; Wax′iness waxy appearance; Wax′ing a method of putting a finish on dressed leather: the process of stopping out colours in calico-printing; Wax′-in′sect an insect which secretes wax; Wax′-light a candle or taper made of wax; Wax′-mod′elling the process of forming figures in wax; Wax′-moth a bee-moth; Wax′-myr′tle the candle-berry tree; Wax′-paint′ing a kind of painting the pigments for which are ground with wax and diluted with oil of turpentine; Wax′-palm either of two South American palms yielding wax; Wax′-pā′per paper prepared by spreading over its surface a thin coating made of white wax and other materials.—adj. Wax′-red (Shak.) bright-red like sealing-wax.—ns. Wax′tree a genus of plants of natural order Hypericace all whose species yield a yellow resinous juice when wounded forming when dried the so-called American gamboge; Wax′-wing a genus of small Passerine birds so named from most of the species having small red horny appendages resembling red sealing-wax on their wings; Wax′work work made of wax esp. figures or models formed of wax: (pl.) an exhibition of wax figures; Wax′worker.—adj. Wax′y resembling wax: soft: pallid pasty: adhesive: (slang) irate incensed.—Waxy degeneration a morbid process in which the healthy tissue of various organs is transformed into a peculiar waxy albuminous substance—also amyloid or lardaceous degeneration.

v.i. to grow or increase esp. of the moon as opposed to Wane: to pass into another state.—pa.p. Wax′en (B.) grown.

Checked by Genevieve