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wax2

Syllabification: (wax)
Pronunciation: /waks/

Translate wax | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of wax

verb

[no object]
  • (of the moon between new and full) have a progressively larger part of its visible surface illuminated, increasing its apparent size.
  • literary become larger or stronger:his anger waxed
  • [with complement] begin to speak or write about something in the specified manner:they waxed lyrical about the old days

Phrases

wax and wane

undergo alternate increases and decreases:companies whose fortunes wax and wane with the economic cycle

Origin:

Old English weaxan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch wassen and German wachsen, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek auxanein and Latin augere 'to increase'

wax in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of wax in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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