waxen

¹ American  

[wak-suhn] / ˈwæk sən /

adjective

1. made of or covered, polished, or treated with wax.

2. resembling or suggesting wax.

   Illness gave his face a waxen appearance.

3. weak, manageable, or impressionable.

   The minds of young children are waxen.

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waxen ² American  

[wak-suhn] / ˈwæk sən /

verb

Literary.

1. a past participle of wax.

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waxen ¹ British  

/ ˈwæksən /

adjective

1. made of, treated with, or covered with wax

2. resembling wax in colour or texture

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waxen ² British  

/ ˈwæksən /

verb

1. archaic a past participle of wax 2

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Etymology

Origin of waxen

before 1000; Middle English; Old English weaxen; wax ¹, -en ²

Example Sentences

Clutched in both Miss Myrt’s waxen hands was the pointer she slapped the map with or pointed to things with on the blackboard.

From Literature

His lips looked chiseled from ice; his flesh was waxen yellow.

From Literature

Her voice, paired with Mr. Carey’s writing, creates a beguiling audio backstory for a woman whom time has rendered as unreal as one of her waxen figures.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

His waxen face was frozen in a perpetual scowl.

From Los Angeles Times