wax
pronunciation
How to pronounce wax in British English:
UK [wæks]
How to pronounce wax in American English:
US [wæks]
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- Noun:
- any of various substances of either mineral origin or plant or animal origin; they are solid at normal temperatures and insoluble in water
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- Verb:
- cover with wax
- go up or advance
- increase in phase
Word Origin
- wax
- wax: Wax ‘soft oily substance’ [OE] and the now archaic wax ‘grow, become’ [OE] are distinct words. The former comes (together with German wachs, Dutch was, Swedish vax, and Danish vox) from a prehistoric Germanic *wakhsam. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European *weg- ‘weave’ (source also of English veil). Wax originally referred specifically to ‘bees-wax’, and the word’s underlying etymological reference is to the combs ‘woven’ from wax by bees.Russian and Czech vosk ‘wax’ come from the same ultimate source. The verb wax goes back to the Indo- European base *woks-, a variant of which has given English auction and augment. Although it has largely died out in English, its relatives in the other Germanic languages (meaning ‘grow’) are still very much alive: German wachsen, Dutch wassen, Swedish vāxa, and Danish vokse.=> veil; auction, augment
- wax (n.)
- Old English weax "substance made by bees," from Proto-Germanic *wahsam (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German wahs, Old Norse vax, Dutch was, German Wachs), from PIE root *wokso- "wax" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic voskŭ, Lithuanian vaškas, Polish wosk, Russian vosk "wax" (but these may be from Germanic). Used of other similar substances from 18c. Slang for "gramophone record" is from 1932, American English (until the early 1940s, most original records were made by needle-etching onto a waxy disk which was then metal-plated to make a master). Waxworks "exhibition of wax figures representing famous or notorious persons" first recorded 1796.
- wax (v.)
- "grow bigger or greater," Old English weaxan "to increase, grow" (class VII strong verb; past tense weox, past participle weaxen), from Proto-Germanic *wahsan (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German wahsan, Old Norse vaxa, Old Frisian waxa, Dutch wassen, German wachsen, Gothic wahsjan "to grow, increase"), from PIE *weg- (cognates: Sanskrit vaksayati "cause to grow," Greek auxein "to increase"), extended form of root *aug- (1) "to increase" (see augment). Strong conjugation archaic after 14c. Related: Waxed; waxing.
Example
- 1. When mixed with wax , it makes a plastic explosive .
- 2. The end result is called adipocere , or grave wax .
- 3. Put slightly differently , hexagonal cells allow bees to focus on producing honey and expend the least amount of energy making wax .
- 4. The most common way to desensitise an explosive is by mixing it with a non-explosive material , such as wax or paper .
- 5. But don 't eat beans before you go because when they wax your butthole you have to pull your legs up to your chest and you might fart on them .