Word.ws English Dictionary

forwax

forwax verb: to grow to excess; become huge; overgrow; swell.

Verb

forwax (third-person singular simple present forwaxes, present participle forwaxing, simple past forwaxed, past participle forwaxed or forwaxen)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To grow to excess; become huge; overgrow; swell.
    • Horrible gret was, A forwoxen grome, Such Another neuer had he sain.1475, Couldrette, The romans of Partenay

Forms of forwax

third-person singular presentforwaxes
present participleforwaxing
pastforwaxed
past participleforwaxed
past participleforwaxen

Origin of forwax

From Middle English forwaxen, from Old English forweaxan (“to progress, grow too much, become overgrown”), equivalent to for- + wax (“to grow, increase”). Cognate with German verwachsen (“to grow together, heal over, overgrow”).

Questions about forwax

What does forwax mean?
Forwax means to grow to excess; become huge; overgrow; swell.
What part of speech is forwax?
Forwax is a verb.
What is the past tense of forwax?
The past tense of forwax is forwaxed.

Words near forwax in the dictionary

  1. forwarns
  2. forwaste
  3. forwasted
  4. forwastes
  5. forwasting
  6. forwax
  7. forwaxed
  8. forwaxen
  9. forwaxes
  10. forwaxing
  11. forway

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forwax (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “forwax.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forwax. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.