[f. WAX v.1 + -ING2.] That waxes, grows or increases.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7228. A grene wexinge tre þat is fram þe more Ismite adoun.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 7328. So waxynge [Petyt MS. waxand] folk in al þys werde, Ne so gendryng, ne so plentyue … Als we arn of oure kynde, In no lond scholde men fynde.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, III. v. (Skeat), l. 5. Blosmes of waxing frute.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471/1. Spryngynge, of a welle or oþer waxynge watyr, scaturacio.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., III. i. 95. I stand as one vpon a Rocke … Who markes the waxing tide grow waue by waue.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., iv. Each wexing Moon supplied her watry store, To swell those Tides.
1820. Wiffen, Aonian Hours (ed. 2), 36. The mutable moon Stamps all the changes of her wexing phase.
1883. M. Creighton, Lett., in Life (1904), I. 263. I am sorry that you think me a waxing Conservative.
1910. Ld. Rosebery, Chatham, xxi. 456. The Duke, moreover, was at war with the waxing power of Leicester House.
† b. Of flesh: Excrescent. Obs.
c. 1400. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xii. Sometyme commeth to þe houndes sekenes in hir eyenn, for þer commeth a webbe vpon hem and waxynge flesshe, þe which commeth into þt one syde of þe eye and is cleped an nayle.
† c. Waxing kernel = WAX-KERNEL, WAXEN-KERNEL, Obs.
c. 1460[?]. Medulla (MS. St. John’s, Cambr.), in Cath. Angl., 411., note 2. Glandula, nodus sub cute, a waxynge curnelle.
1530. Palsgr., 287/1. Waxyng kyrnels glandes, glanders.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Tolles, a waxynge kernell.
1684. J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 206. Waxing-Kernel, Struma, Choaking, or the Strangles.
† d. absol. In the waxand, in the waxing (phase). Cf. WANIAND.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22496. Þe mone þat es sa scene, quen it es in þe waxand sene.
Hence † Waxingly adv., increasingly.
1483. Cath. Angl., 411/2. Waxingly, auctim.
