▪ I. waxy, a.1
(ˈwæksɪ)
Also 7 waxey.
[f. wax n.1 + -y1.]
† 1. Made of wax, waxen. Obs.
| 1552 Huloet, Waxie or of waxe, cæreus. 1615 Montgomerie's Cherrie & Slae v. in Ramsay Evergreen (1875) II. 101 And sum [bees] the waxie Veschells wrocht, Thair Purchase to preserve. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis v. i. 330 The Bees so sudden joyes Their waxie-houses fill with buzzing noyse. |
2. a. Having the nature or distinctive properties of wax.
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 434 Boil a quantity of honey in order to get all the waxy part out of it. 1866 Treas. Bot. s.v. Elæagia, These trees are remarkable for the quantity of green resinous or waxy matter which is secreted by the stipules. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 82 In company with the cuticular bodies there are usually found compounds of a waxy nature. |
b. fig. Of a person, his heart, mind: Soft, plastic, impressionable like wax.
| 1596 Willobie Avisa (1880) 88 If you had had a waxye hart That would haue melt at hot desyre. 1608 Bp. Hall Char. ii. 111 The Vnconstant... He is seruile in imitation, waxey to persuasions. 1632 T. Goffe Courageous Turk ii. v, Thinke you my minde is waxie, to be wrought, By any fashion. a 1660 Hammond 19 Serm. xvii. Wks. 1684 IV. 679 Now..that the softer waxy part of you, may receive some impression from this Discourse, let us close all with an Application. 1843 Dickens Let. 13 Nov. Lett. (1880) I. 93 If you will impress this on the waxy mind of ― I shall be truly and unaffectedly obliged to you. |
3. a. Resembling wax in colour or consistence; (of a quality) like that of wax. Often said of boiled potatoes that have not become ‘mealy’.
| 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 428/1 The..waxy appearance which those who are the subjects of this disease [i.e. chlorosis] generally exhibit. 1841 Hood Tale of Trumpet 209 Great Philosophers talking like Platos,..And your ears as dull as waxy potatoes! 1845 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) VI. 6 Ground colour a clear primrose, edging a bright purple, petals very waxy. 1868 ‘Holme Lee’ B. Godfrey xxviii, There are two daughters, pretty little waxy girls they were. 1875 Buckland Log-Bk. 140 The general colour of the scorpion is a horrid-looking waxy brown. 1890 Lancet 16 Aug. 333/1 The fat is abnormally waxy and soft. 1905 R. Bagot Passport xxv. 268 The waxy whiteness of the rest of the face [in an old picture]. |
b. Med. Affected with amyloid degeneration.
| 1845 Budd Dis. Liver 243 These characters are well expressed by the epithet ‘waxy,’ which has been applied to livers in this state by Dr. Home and Rokitansky. 1866 A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 57 The waxy material is exceptionally deposited in large nodules, constituting the waxy tumors. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. 800 Gall-stones..sometimes consist..of a nearly homogeneous waxy mass. 1881 W. H. Day Dis. Childr. 256 The lardaceous or waxy kidney. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 537 The diffuse, waxy spleen. |
4. Soiled or covered with wax. In quots. as a derisive epithet for a cobbler.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) III. 75/2 Your child..called me cobbler waxy, waxy, waxy. 1914 A. Macdonald Story & Song fr. Loch Ness-side xiii. 223 They got there [into the fairy mound], and immediately observed the ‘waxy cobbler’ still dancing. |
5. Comb., as waxy-faced, waxy-looking, waxy-skinned, waxy-white.
| 1846 Dickens Cricket on Hearth i, The little waxy-faced Dutch clock in the corner. 1927 Scots Observer 1 Jan. 3/1 Barefoot women..some with waxy⁓faced infants in their arms. |
| 1859 D. Bunce Trav. with Dr. Leichhardt vi. 44 A race of plants having waxy⁓looking berries. 1871 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. 65 The cut-surface is..translucent, and waxy-looking. 1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xxii. 328 Oedema is usually not marked, but all over the posterior pole there tend to gather hard, white or yellow, waxy⁓looking patches of exudates. |
| 1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 34 He was a sharpnosed waxyskinned young man. |
| 1929 W. Faulkner Sanctuary xxiii. 261 His nostrils were waxy white with rage. 1954 A. G. L. Hellyer Encycl. Garden Work 452 Kindingeri, waxy-white, reddish at base. |
Hence ˈwaxily adv., ˈwaxiness.
| 1855 Hyde Clarke, Waxiness. 1880 Jrnl. Linn. Soc. XV. 98 Shell..not thin, but waxily translucent. 1890 Sat. Rev. 22 Nov. 588/2 [He] was originally a sculptor, and now paints rather waxily, as if he were modelling in oil-colour. |
▪ II. waxy, a.2 colloq. or slang.
(ˈwæksɪ)
[f. wax n.3 + -y1.]
Angry, ‘in a wax’.
A supposed example of 1648 in the Hamilton Papers (Camden) 229 is an editorial misreading of wary.
| 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xxiv, It would cheer him up more than anything, if I could make him a little waxy with me. 1866 J. E. Brogden Lincolnsh. Gloss., Waxey, peevish, cross, irritable. Ex. You need-na be so waxey. 1872 Punch 1 June 222/1 It's no good being waxy about it. |