English

Adjective

waxen ‎(comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)

1. (Britain, dialectal) Grown.

Verb

waxen

1. alternative past participle of wax.
2. (obsolete) plural simple present form of wax
   • 1540, Great Bible, Second Edition, Preface

     And they that occupye them been in muche savegarde, and have greate consolacyon, and been the readyer unto all goodnesse, the slower to all evyll: and if they have done anything amysse, anone even by the sight of the bookes, theyr conscvences been admonished, and they waxen sory and ashamed of the facte.

   • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender

     When the rayne is faln, the cloudes wexen cleare.

   • c. 1590-97, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i

     And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

     And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

     A merrier hour was never wasted there.

Etymology 2

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

Adjective

waxen ‎(comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)

1. Made of wax; covered with wax.

   a waxen tablet‎

2. Of or pertaining to wax.
3. Having the pale smooth characteristics of wax, waxlike, waxy.
4. (rare) Easily effaced, as if written in wax.

Derived terms

• waxen chatterer
• waxen image

Translations