waxing 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
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
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
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
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
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

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