waxen
1 Americanverb
adjective
-
made of, treated with, or covered with wax
-
resembling wax in colour or texture
verb
Etymology
Origin of waxen
before 1000; Middle English; Old English weaxen; see wax 1, -en 2
Vocabulary lists containing waxen
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.
Most significantly, Flanner reported from the trials at Nuremberg, writing that a group of Nazi prisoners “seem already waxen and posthumous, like museum figures of the members of some nefarious long-ago regime which had failed.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026
“That’s a lie,” was his standard rejoinder, strangely accompanied by a waxen smile that flickered on and off as though set on a faulty timer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
Steps away lay Benedict, rested between Swiss Guards, his head propped on crimson pillows, his face waxen, almost unrecognizable.
From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2023
Soon after her fourth birthday, in the summer of 1930, a waxen effigy of Princess Elizabeth made its debut at Madame Tussauds, seated on a pony.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2022
His lips looked chiseled from ice; his flesh was waxen yellow.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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.
