Wax Meaning
/waks/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounBeeswax.
nounEarwax.
Sentence Examples
This car wax gives permanent protection against heavy rain.
What do you use to pick wax out of your ears?
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the new moon, the visible portion of the moon will ____ for about two weeks.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The candle began to melt and the hot ____ dripped down onto the wooden table earlier this evening today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English wax, from Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahsą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *woḱ-so-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Woaks (“wax”), West Frisian waaks (“wax”), Dutch was (“wax”), German Wachs (“wax”), German Low German Wass (“wax”), Luxembourgish Wuess (“wax”), Vilamovian wāhs (“wax”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk voks (“wax”), Faroese vaks (“wax”), Icelandic, Swedish vax (“wax”); and with Lithuanian vaškas (“wax”), Proto-Slavic *voskъ (“wax”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"What really started the corn sprouting on Broadway was a lugubrious tune by Louisiana's Jimmie Davis called It Makes No Difference Now. In the late '30s Decca's Recording Chief David Kapp heard this Texas hit and got it on wax."
— 1943, Time:
"He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"The syrup is waxing. Come and help yourselves."
— 1932, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods:
""I was reassigned over from the 9th when the battalion CO got waxed on the road leading in." Ben kept his dismay to himself. Here was one more officer in the 90th who'd been on the job only hours or days, replacing commanders killed or wounded...."
— 2005, David L. Robbins, Liberation Road: A Novel of World War II and the Red Ball Express, page 83:
""You telling me you know who really waxed him and your mom?"
"Yeah," she lied.
"Just who pulled the trigger or who ordered it to be pulled?""
— 2009, Dean R. Koontz, Ed Gorman, Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: City of Night, →ISBN, page 106:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the new moon, the visible portion of the moon will ____ for about two weeks.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The candle began to melt and the hot ____ dripped down onto the wooden table earlier this evening today.