Word.ws English Dictionary

waxen

/ˈwæksən/

waxen adjective: grown. Also the alternative past participle of wax.

Adjective (1)

waxen (comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)

  1. (UK, dialectal) Grown.

Adjective (2)

waxen (comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)

  1. Made of or covered with wax.
    • a waxen tablet
    • She is fair; and so is Julia that I love—
      That I did love, for now my love is thaw’d;
      Which, like a waxen image, ’gainst a fire,
      Bears no impression of the thing it was.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. Of or pertaining to wax.
  3. Having the pale smooth characteristics of wax, waxlike, waxy.
    • It was hard to imagine that the broken thing had once been new; that those withered, waxen cheeks had been fresh and tinted. That her eyes had long ago glinted with laughter.1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 28, in Gormenghast, Penguin, published 1969, page 185
  4. Easily molded, influenced, or bent; yielding, impressible.
    • The traveller hears me now and then,
      ⁠And sometimes harshly will he speak:
      ⁠‘This fellow would make weakness weak,
      And melt the waxen hearts of men.’1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 35
  5. (rare) Easily effaced, as if written in wax.

Also used as

waxen is also the alternative past participle of wax.

waxen is also the plural simple present of wax.

Forms of waxen

comparativemore waxen
superlativemost waxen

Origin of waxen

From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxen, ġeweaxen, from Proto-Germanic *wahsanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *wahsijaną (“to wax, grow, increase”), equivalent to wax + -en (past participle ending).

Equivalent to wax + -en (plural simple present ending).

From Middle English waxen (“made of wax”), from Old English weaxen (“waxen, made of wax”), equivalent to wax + -en (“made of”).

Words formed from waxen

Phrases with waxen

Questions about waxen

What does waxen mean?
Waxen means grown.
What part of speech is waxen?
Waxen is an adjective.
How do you pronounce waxen?
Waxen is pronounced /ˈwæksən/.

Words near waxen in the dictionary

  1. waxed poetic
  2. waxed someone's tail
  3. waxed the dolphin
  4. waxed wode
  5. waxedst
  6. waxen
  7. waxen chatterer
  8. waxen chatterers
  9. waxen image
  10. waxen images
  11. waxen vein

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: waxen (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-waxen.wav.

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