WAXEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does waxen mean? 

• WAXEN (adjective)
  The adjective WAXEN has 2 senses:

1. made of or covered with wax

2. having the paleness of wax

  Familiarity information: WAXEN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WAXEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Made of or covered with wax

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

waxen; waxy

Context example:

careful, the floor is waxy

Pertainym:

wax (any of various substances of either mineral origin or plant or animal origin; they are solid at normal temperatures and insoluble in water)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having the paleness of wax

Synonyms:

waxen; waxlike; waxy

Context example:

a thin face with a waxy paleness

Similar:

colorless; colourless (weak in color; not colorful)

 Context examples 

This time he did not start as he looked on the poor face with the same awful, waxen pallor as before.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Catherine had read too much not to be perfectly aware of the ease with which a waxen figure might be introduced, and a supposititious funeral carried on.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

As he held the waxen print close to the blood-stain, it did not take a magnifying glass to see that the two were undoubtedly from the same thumb.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Adele, indeed, no sooner saw Mrs. Fairfax, than she summoned her to her sofa, and there quickly filled her lap with the porcelain, the ivory, the waxen contents of her boite; pouring out, meantime, explanations and raptures in such broken English as she was mistress of.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was deathly pale, just like a waxen image, and the red eyes glared with the horrible vindictive look which I knew too well.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

His waxen hue became greenish-yellow by the contrast of his burning eyes, and the red scar on the forehead showed on the pallid skin like a palpitating wound.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The waxen face; the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing between; and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the sunset on the windows of St. Mary's Church at Whitby.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)