Also 7 Sc. wexin. [f. WAX sb.1 + -EN4.
OE. had węxen, *wiexen = (M)Du., (M)LG. wassen, OHG. wahsîn (MHG. wähsîn, wehsîn, mod.G. wächsen):—OTeut. waχsīno-.]
1. Made of wax.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 210. Hlaf wexenne [L. cerarium, error for cencrium ‘of millet’] niman freo[n]dscipas niwe ʓefeʓð.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1650. Waxen torches Seggez sette … in sale.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VI. (1811), 170. The whiche ordre he kepte duely by waxen tapers kepte by certayne persones.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 58. Eftsoones long waxen torches weren light, Vnto their bowres to guiden euery guest.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. iv. 201. For now my loue is thaw’d, Which like a waxen Image ’gainst a fire Beares no impression of the thing it was.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 36. By the light of a waxen candle.
1643. Alex. Ross, Mel Heliconium, 40. In that we do injoy our lives, In that our wexin kingdom thrives.
1646. Crashaw, Steps, Delights Muses, 115. The working Bees soft melting Gold, That which their waxen Mines enfold.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 491. The Femal Bee that … builds her waxen Cells With Honey stor’d.
1706. Z. Cradock, Serm. Charity (1740), 21. They are but the … artificial Counterfeit of Virtue, Trees laden with waxen Fruit.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., cxxvi. (1819), III. 40. A resemblance scarcely less exact than that of the bust to its mould, or the waxen seal to the sculptured gem.
1825. Scott, Talism., iii. Two waxen torches, which the hermit lighted, gave a cheerful air to the place.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 677. A waxen figure … was dragged about Westminster in a chariot.
1860. Family Economist, 3 March, 242/1. Waxen Flowers and Fruit.
1887. R. R. Bowker, in Harper’s Mag., 185/2. The metal (or glass) plate [in etching] is covered with a waxen composition.
b. Waxen image: spec. an effigy in wax representing a person whom it was desired to injure by witchcraft.
The victim was believed to waste away as the wax melted at the fire, and to suffer pain from stabs or the like inflicted on the effigy. Cf. quot. 1591 above.
1685. G. Sinclair, Satans Invis. World, 101. The Waxen-Image being found and broken,… the King did … recover.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VIII. 101. Around his waxen Image first I wind Three woollen Fillets.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Witches, ¶ 1. That maidens pined away, wasting inwardly as their waxen images consumed before a fire.
1837. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. Leech Folkest. Fixed against [the doors] … was a waxen image—of himself!
1870. Rossetti, Sister Helen, 1.
| Why did you melt your waxen man, | |
| Sister Helen? |
2. transf. and fig. As if made of wax. a. With reference to the softness, impressibility or fusibility of wax. Chiefly of immaterial things (often with opposition to steel or marble).
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. 211. The World’s owne Matter is a waxen Lump, Which, un-self-changing, takes all kind of stamp.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 75. Oh thou the earthy author of my blood … with thy blessings steele my Lances point, That it may enter Mowbrayes waxen Coate. Ibid. (1593), Lucr., 1240. For men haue marble, women waxen mindes.
1653. Marvell, Corr. (Grosart), II. 4. Truly he is of a gentle and waxen disposition.
1767. G. Canning, Poems, 28. Watch o’er my son, inform his waxen youth.
1794. Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), II. 424. Those who remain are or that waxen substance called the men of property.
1849. Lytton, K. Arthur, III. l. But men are waxen when the Fates are steel’d.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xxi. This fellow would make weakness weak, And melt the waxen hearts of men.
b. With reference to the smooth and lustrous surface of things modelled in wax. Said, e.g., of fruits, flowers, youthful limbs. Also applied to the pallor of a corpse or a sick person.
a. 1700. Sedley, Virg. Past., ii. Wks. 1722, I. 268. And waxen Plumbs [L. cerea pruna].
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. xiii. 2. His rosy neck, and waxen arms [L. cerea bracchia].
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., viii. But the small waxen form [sc. the dead baby] … had been composed afresh.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxi. (1856), 266. It makes a man feel badly to see the faces around him bleaching into waxen paleness.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, xii. I saw … a few waxen lobes of bell-heath, perfectly white.
¶ c. ? As if written on wax; soon effaced. nonce-use.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 233. Or else our graue Like Turkish mute, shall haue a tonguelesse mouth, Not worshipt with a waxen Epitaph.
3. Covered or coated with wax, loaded with wax.
Waxen wings: often in allusions to the story of Icarus: see ICARIAN a.1
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 172. The honie-bags steale from the humble Bees, And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighes.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faustus (1604), Chorus 21. Till swolne with cunning, of a selfe conceit, His waxen wings did mount aboue his reach, And melting heauens conspirde his ouerthrow.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. i. § 3. Hence it is true … that diuers great learned men haue beene hereticall, whilest they haue sought to flye vp to the secrets of the Deitie by the waxen winges of the Sences.
1695. Ld. Preston, Boeth., v. 232. As heretofore with a swift Stile Men us’d on waxen Tables smooth Letters and Figures to ingrave.
1781. Cowper, Anti-Thelyphth., 54. She tutor’d some in Dædalus’s art, And promis’d they should … On waxen pinions soar without a fall.
1789–96. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 27. The old … manner of writing, before the use of paper of any kind, and waxen tables, was known.
4. Special collocations: waxen chatterer, the Bohemian waxwing, Ampelis garrulus; † waxen vein Min., argilliferous marlite.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds, I. 83. Silk Tail, or *Waxen Chatterer. (Ampelis Garrulus, Lin.)
1862. Johns, Brit. Birds, 625. Waxen Chatterer or Waxwing.
1681. Grew, Musæum, III. § i. v. 311. The *Waxen Vein. Ludus Helmontii. A Stone composed of two distinct Bodies.
1705. S. Dale, Pharmacol., Suppl. 29. Ludus Paracelsi … Waxen Vein.
1740. Phil. Trans., XLI. 836. Masses of the Waxen-vein or Ludus Helmontii, which is also found in great Plenty on the Seashore near the Spaw at Scarborough.
5. Comb., as waxen-faced, -hued, -like, -winged adjs.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xv. 170. Three stools, and as many *waxen-faced men.
1916. Louis Tracy, in Chamb. Jrnl., Feb., 116/2. A sorrow-laden, *waxen-hued face seemed to peer at him for an instant, and then vanish.
1845. Hirst, Coming of Mammoth, etc., 34. How waxen-like his hands!
1909. Essex Rev., XVIII. 75. The parasitical Lesser Dodder, Cuscuta Epithymum, has waxen-like flowers of pale pink.
1645. Quarles, Sol. Recant., VII. 9. Since *waxen-winged Honour is not void Of danger.
