Other forms: waxing, waxed, waxes
Wax is a soft solid that melts easily and repels water. Candle wax, beeswax, wax polish.
It repels water because the molecules have no charged parts for water to grip, which is why it waterproofs and why it makes a good polish. Bees make it from their own bodies to build comb. As a verb, to wax means to grow — the moon waxes and wanes — which is a completely separate word.
1nounwaxA soft solid that melts easily and repels water.
“The candle had burned down, and hot wax dripped onto the table.”
2verbgrowTo grow larger, of the moon.
“The moon waxes from a thin crescent to a full circle.”
3verbremoveTo remove hair from the body by spreading on a warm sticky layer and pulling it off quickly.
“She has her legs waxed a week before every holiday.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Old English weax is a Germanic word for the substance. The verb wax, meaning to grow, is a separate Old English word.
Middle English
wax
English, today
wax
From Middle English wax. From Middle English wax, from Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic wahsą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European woḱ-so-. Cognate with stq Woaks (“wax”), West Frisian waaks (“wax”), Dutch was (“wax”), German Wachs (“wax”), German Low German Wass (“wax”), lb Wuess (“wax”), wym wāhs (“wax”), Danish -, Norwegian Bokmål -, Norwegian Nynorsk voks (“wax”), Faroese vaks (“wax”), Icelandic -, Swedish vax (“wax”); and with Lithuanian vaškas (“wax”), Proto-Slavic voskъ (“wax”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA