A name given to the fruit of certain plants and also to the plants themselves. a. The genus Myrica, esp. M. cerifera of North America (BAYBERRY 2). b. = SNOW-BERRY 2 (Webster, 1911).
1835. Moodie, Ten Yrs. S. Afr., II. 197. I occasionally employed my people at spare times in gathering wax-berries, that … yield a substance partaking of the nature of wax and tallow, which is mixed with common tallow, and used by the colonists for making candles.
1892. Stevenson, In South Seas, IV. vi. (1900), 328. Tamaiti … returned with coco tinder, dry leaves, and a spray of waxberry.
1897. E. Glanville, Tales fr. Veld, xiii. 100–1. I … found him peacefully employed boiling down wax berries for the manufacture of candles for his own lighting.
