ball of wax
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of ball of wax
First recorded in 1950–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It’s the same sort of ball of wax: People getting frustrated, feeling strained and acting out toward others,” said Charis E. Kubrin, a criminologist at the University of California, Irvine.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 12, 2022
“Peter and the Wolf” was the sound of making it: the playing, the narration and amplification, the whole ball of wax.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 16, 2021
A: We’re the whole ball of wax as performers and actors, and comedy is kind of a serious thing.
From Washington Post • Apr. 7, 2016
But breaking up when you have created human beings together, when you are still deep in the throes of raising them, is a completely different ball of wax.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2014
I feel something in my throat, like a ball of wax, so thick I can barely swallow, barely breathe.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
