wax down

Verb

wax down (third-person singular simple present waxes down, present participle waxing down, simple past and past participle waxed down)

1. To rub or polish with wax to create a slick, shiny and/or waterproof coating; to wax.
   • We're waxin' down our surfboards / We can't wait for June1963, Brian Wilson, “Surfin' U.S.A.”, in Surfin' U.S.A., performed by Beach Boys
   • So the next afternoon we weren't doing anything and it was fairly warm, we got rags and waxed down his plane.2008, George Wolf Crawford, Raymond Shelton Crawford, Fred Crawford, Three Crawford Brothers: The WW II Memoirs of Three Pilots, page 276
2. To stiffen by coating or permeating with wax.
   • The paper should be as thin and tough as possible – for example, typewriter paper, The equal sheets thus prepared must now be waxed down by aid of a hot iron on the carefully prepared wooden boards, paper side out.1909, “A Modern Receiving Set for Wireless Telegraphy”, in The Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician, volume 21, page 325
   • In picking up the loops, the weaver probably used some kind of bodkin, or possibly she knew how to wax down the ends of her threads to a fine point,1925, Art and Archaeology - Volume 20, page 86
3. To coat (hair) with an oily or waxy substance in order to hold it in place.
   • She divided the rest of the hair into 4 equal parts, twisted each part and tied it into 3 knots. Those she waxed down to my skull with 4 pins to the knot .1900, Recreation, volume 13, page 22
   • That dark-skinned, hollow-chested, small-eyed, slight young man under medium height, with his black hair parted in the middle and always kept flat as if waxed down, was no match for the wiry, healthy lad with uncommon staying-powers and the unschooled passion of a fury.1911, John Edward Patterson, My Vagabondage, page 139
4. To generate a layer of wax that completely covers.
   • If the hive is suspected of being queenless, a queen-cell from another hive, with the pupa ready to hatch out, is sometimes placed in it, when, if the new queen is required, the bees will take to her, but should they have a queen and do not require a new one, they will wax down the queen-cell that...1884, “The Museum”, in Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society, number 32, page lviii
   • By the description of his cover for the bees to wax down, it was not properly braced, as the dovetailed end is made by different manufacturers.1892 June 23, Thomas Johnson, “Temperature in Wintering Bees”, in American Bee Journal, volume 29, number 26, page 833
5. To seal over with wax, in order to make airtight and watertight.
   • We complied instantly with these instructions, and digging, soon found a bottle corked and waxed down, wherein was a letter from Captain Cook informing us of their arrival at this place on the 3rd instant, and departure on the 24th, and that they intended spending a few days in the entrance of the...1890, Richard Arundell Augur Sherrin, Thomson W. Leys, John Howard Wallace, Early History of New Zealand: From Earliest Times to 1840, page 49
   • Solid caustic potash must always be kept in well-stoppered bottles, which when not in use may be waxed down.1892, Arnold James Cooley, Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades, page 1375
6. To paste into place using wax.
   • For delicate small-scale line-drawing, the thick blue paper, such as is used for ledgers, &c., imperial size, answers exceedingly well; but it does not bear damp-stretching without injury, and should be merely pinned or waxed down to the board.1862, William Ezra Worthen, Practical Drawing Book, page 36
   • Then muslin was waxed down onto the surface, to bind it, and the panel was lifted in one piece.1969, Leonard Woolley, edited by Shirley Glubok, Discovering the Royal Tombs at Ur, page 60
7. To taper off; to gradually quiet or diminish.
   • See how sin, even from Adam to Cain, had grown up to murder and defiance of God! See how it then waxed down to the death of all flesh in the judgment of the flood!1859, Rudolf Stier, William Burt Pope, “The Origin and End of Evil”, in The Words of the Lord Jesus, volume 9, page 253
   • You may remember — and this is the last example I will give as I begin to wax down — there was this incredible problem back in the 1980s of the 747s across the Pacific at 40,000 feet suddenly losing all four engines in mid-flight.1995, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, Department of the Interior and Related Agencies - Part 11, page 44