waxworks
Americannoun
plural
waxworksEtymology
Origin of waxworks
First recorded in 1690–1700; wax 1 + work ( def. ) + -s 3 ( def. )
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.
At Barnum’s American Museum in New York City, visitors could see America’s first aquarium, a menagerie of exotic animals, performances by magicians and ventriloquists, and waxworks.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026
The figure will feature alongside waxworks of Timothée Chalamet, Harry Styles and Zendaya as part of the attraction's Awards Party zone.
From BBC • Sep. 4, 2025
When you walk through a crowd of strangers it’s next door to impossible not to imagine that they’re all waxworks, but probably they’re thinking just the same about you.
From Salon • Sep. 1, 2025
The waxworks are horror-show images of the consequences of fear of decline.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 7, 2025
They were like the most wonderful waxworks you ever saw.
From "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis
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.
