▪ I. waxen, a.
(ˈwæksən)
Also 7 Sc. wexin.
[f. wax n.1 + -en4.
OE. had węxen, *wiexen = (M)Du., (M)LG. wassen, OHG. wahsîn (MHG. wähsîn, wehsîn, mod.G. wächsen):—OTeut. *waχsīno-.]
1. Made of wax.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 210 Hlaf wexenne [L. cerarium, error for cencrium ‘of millet’] niman freo[n]dscipas niwe ᵹefeᵹð. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1650 Waxen torches Seggez sette..in sale. a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vi. (1811) 170 The whiche ordre he kepte duely by waxen tapers kepte by certayne persones. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. i. 58 Eftsoones long waxen torches weren light, Vnto their bowres to guiden euery guest. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 201 For now my loue is thaw'd, Which like a waxen Image 'gainst a fire Beares no impression of the thing it was. 1611 Coryat Crudities 36 By the light of a waxen candle. 1643 A. Ross Mel Heliconium 40 In that we do injoy our lives, In that our wexin kingdom thrives. 1646 Crashaw Steps Delights Muses 115 The working Bees soft melting Gold, That which their waxen Mines enfold. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 491 The Femal Bee that..builds her waxen Cells With Honey stor'd. 1706 Z. Cradock Serm. Charity (1740) 21 They are but the..artificial Counterfeit of Virtue, Trees laden with waxen Fruit. 1782 V. Knox Ess. cxxvi. (1819) III. 40 A resemblance scarcely less exact than that of the bust to its mould, or the waxen seal to the sculptured gem. 1825 Scott Talism. iii, Two waxen torches, which the hermit lighted, gave a cheerful air to the place. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 677 A waxen figure..was dragged about Westminster in a chariot. 1860 Family Economist 3 Mar. 142/1 Waxen Flowers and Fruit. 1887 Harper's Mag. July 185/2 The metal (or glass) plate is covered with a waxen composition. |
b. waxen image: spec. an effigy in wax representing a person whom it was desired to injure by witchcraft.
The victim was believed to waste away as the wax melted at the fire, and to suffer pain from stabs or the like inflicted on the effigy. Cf. quot. 1591 above.
| 1685 G. Sinclair Satans Invis. World 101 The Waxen-Image being found and broken..the King did..recover. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. viii. 101 Around his waxen Image first I wind Three woollen Fillets. 1821 Lamb Elia, Witches ¶1 That maidens pined away, wasting inwardly as their waxen images consumed before a fire. 1837 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Leech Folkest., Fixed against [the doors]..was a waxen image—of himself! 1870 Rossetti Sister Helen 1 Why did you melt your waxen man, Sister Helen? |
2. trans. and fig. As if made of wax. a. With reference to the softness, impressibility, or fusibility of wax. Chiefly of immaterial things (often with opposition to steel or marble).
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 211 The World's owne Matter is a waxen Lump, Which, un-self-changing, takes all kind of stamp. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 75 Oh thou the earthy author of my blood..with thy blessings steele my Lances point, That it may enter Mowbrayes waxen Coate. 1593 ― Lucr. 1240 For men haue marble, women waxen mindes. 1653 Marvell Corr. (Grosart) II. 4 Truly he is of a gentle and waxen disposition. 1767 G. Canning Poems 28 Watch o'er my son, inform his waxen youth. 1794 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 424 Those who remain are of that waxen substance called the men of property. 1849 Lytton K. Arthur iii. l, But men are waxen when the Fates are steel'd. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xxi, This fellow would make weakness weak, And melt the waxen hearts of men. |
b. With reference to the smooth and lustrous surface of things modelled in wax. Said, e.g., of fruits, flowers, youthful limbs. Also applied to the pallor of a corpse or a sick person.
| a 1700 Sedley Virg. Past. ii. Wks. 1722 I. 268 And waxen Plumbs [L. cerea pruna]. 1743 Francis tr. Hor., Odes i. xiii. 2 His rosy neck, and waxen arms [L. cerea bracchia]. 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. viii, But the small waxen form [sc. the dead baby]..had been composed afresh. 1853 Kane Grinnel Exp. xxxi. (1856) 266 It makes a man feel badly to see the faces around him bleaching into waxen paleness. 1894 Crockett Raiders xii, I saw..a few waxen lobes of bell-heath, perfectly white. |
¶ c. ? As if written on wax; soon effaced. nonce-use.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 233 Or else our graue Like Turkish mute, shall haue a tonguelesse mouth, Not worshipt with a waxen Epitaph. |
3. Covered or coated with wax, loaded with wax.
waxen wings: often in allusions to the story of Icarus: see Icarian a.1
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 172 The honie-bags steale from the humble Bees, And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighes. c 1590 Marlowe Faustus (1604) Chorus 21 Till swolne with cunning, of a selfe conceit, His waxen wings did mount aboue his reach, And melting heauens conspirde his ouerthrow. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. i. §3 Hence it is true..that diuers great learned men haue beene hereticall, whilest they haue sought to flye vp to the secrets of the Deitie by the waxen winges of the Sences. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. v. 232 As heretofore with a swift Stile Men us'd on waxen Tables smooth Letters and Figures to ingrave. 1781 Cowper Anti-Thelyphth. 54 She tutor'd some in Dædalus's art, And promis'd they should..On waxen pinions soar without a fall. 1789–96 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 27 The old..manner of writing, before the use of paper of any kind, and waxen tables, was known. |
4. Special collocations: waxen chatterer, the Bohemian waxwing, Ampelis garrulus; † waxen vein Min., argilliferous marlite.
| 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds I. 83 Silk Tail, or *Waxen Chatterer. (Ampelis Garrulus, Lin.) 1862 Johns Brit. Birds 625 Waxen Chatterer or Waxwing. |
| 1681 Grew Musæum iii. §i. v. 311 The *Waxen Vein. Ludus Helmontii. A Stone composed of two distinct Bodies. 1705 S. Dale Pharmacol. Suppl. 29 Ludus Paracelsi..Waxen Vein. 1740 Phil. Trans. XLI. 836 Masses of the Waxen-vein or Ludus Helmontii, which is also found in great Plenty on the Sea⁓shore near the Spaw at Scarborough. |
5. Comb., as waxen-faced, waxen-hued, waxen-like, waxen-winged adjs.
| 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xv. 170 Three stools, and as many *waxen-faced men. |
| 1916 Chamb. Jrnl. Feb. 116/2 A sorrow-laden, *waxen-hued face. |
| 1845 Hirst Coming of Mammoth, etc. 34 How *waxen-like his hands! 1909 Essex Rev. XVIII. 75 Waxen-like flowers of pale pink. |
| 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. vii. 9 Since *waxen-winged Honour is not void Of danger. |
▪ II. † ˈwaxen, ppl. a. Obs.
[Strong pa. pple. of wax v.1]
Grown up, full-grown, adult. little waxen, young.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2060 Me drempte, ic stod at a win-tre, ðat adde waxen buȝes ðre. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 252 Himself in ille likyng, & had no waxen heyre, Þat mot kepe þe coroune, if he of lond went. 1382 Wyclif Gen. iv. 23 A litle waxen man [Vulg. adolescentulum]. 1422 Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. 161 When hit is a wixen tree, and hundrid oxyn vnneth hit may bowe. a 1425 tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula etc. 21 In ȝong men..or waxen men, I hafe seene few [sc. fistulas] euer be cured. 1555 Ridley Confer. in Foxe A. & M. (1583) 1722/2 The Lordes supper is, and ought to be geuen to them that are waxen. 1599 Return fr. Parnass. ii. i. 812 Fonde they to thinke that this child's waxen daye Will be well spente when maister beares no swaye. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 415 Such a man can neither seduce his [pupil's] minority with ill examples, nor marre his waxen age with a false impression. |
▪ III. † ˈwaxen, v.1 Obs.
Also wexen, weaxen.
In several writers of the 16th c. (chiefly poetical) the forms waxen, wexen occur for wax v.1, but only in those parts of the verb (inf. and 3rd pers. pl. present) in which these were in ME. the normal inflected forms of wax. This may sometimes be due to intentional grammatical archaism; but when these forms are used by writers whose grammar is in all other respects normal, it seems probable that the inflexional waxen in quotations from older writers was mistaken for a verb synonymous but not identical with wax. It has been thought desirable to give here all the examples in our material, in order that their individual significance may be judged of by comparison. The 17th c. quots. from H. More, which are added for completeness, are of course intentionally archaistic.
| 1540 Cranmer Bible Prol. {cross} j b, Anone..theyr consciences bene admonished, and they waxen sory & ashamed of the facte. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 4 And contrariewise, what thynges been moste honest the same weaxen also moste pleasaunt, yf a man haue been accustomed vnto theim. 1562 A. Brooke Romeus & Jul. 1039 The courage of the Mountagewes, by Romeus sight doth growe, The townes men waxen strong, the prince doth send his force. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. iii. 852 This Licabs chappes did waxen wide, his nose⁓thrils waxed flat. 1567 Ibid. xiv. 327, I felt a hooked groyne Too wexen hard vppon my mouth. 1584 Peele Arraign. Paris v. i, Then first gan Cupids eysight wexen dim. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 56 And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe, And waxen in their mirth. 1590 W. Vallans Tale Two Swans (1744) p. ix, As these Swannes began to waxen old. 1594 Barnfield Sheph. Content (Arb.) 30 When their fleeces gin to waxen rough. 1642 H. More Song of Soul i. i. 3 What man..Would woxen [1647 wexen] wroth. 1647 ― Cupids Confl. lxxv, This is the measure of mans industry To wexen some body and getten grace To's outward presence. |
▪ IV. † ˈwaxen, v.2 Obs. rare.
[f. wax n.1 + -en5.]
trans. To cover or dress with wax.
| 1552 Huloet, Waxen, cæro, cero. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 24 Others [Nero] staked through..and waxened over their bodies, and so set them lighted up, as torches. |