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Wax   /wæks/   Listen
Wax

verb
(past & past part. waxed; pres. part. waxing)
1.
Cover with wax.
2.
Go up or advance.  Synonyms: climb, mount, rise.
3.
Increase in phase.  Synonym: full.



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"Wax" Quotes from Famous Books



... dat's de song dat some folks sing! Say, how d'y'e like de soun'? Dey say de pore man orter pay For walkin' on de groun"! When cullud men was slaves, yer know', 'Twas drefful hard to tax 'em; But jes de minnit dat dey's free, God save us! how dey wax 'em! ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... Roman More hateful than a foe; And the Tribunes beard the high, And the Fathers grind the low. As we wax hot in faction, In battle we wax cold; Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various

... a moustache and wax the tips, Harry," she said, when she had recovered sufficiently well to be able to speak. "Curl your hair with tongs and take dancing lessons from a tango lizard or go in for a course of sotto voce sayings from a French portrait painter, but you'd still remain ...
— Who Cares? • Cosmo Hamilton

... Brunell would not be there, and found in the cursory examination possible at that time that its purpose seemed to be strictly legitimate. A shock-headed boy of fifteen or thereabout was in charge, and the operative easily succeeded in engaging his stolid attention elsewhere while, with a bit of soft wax carefully palmed in his left hand, he succeeded in gaining an impression of the lock on the flimsy door. From this he had a key made in anticipation of orders from his chief, requiring a thorough search of the ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... London, at the last annual meeting, awarded "the Royal Medal" to Mr. Benjamin Brodie, F.R.S. (eldest son of Sir B. Brodie, Bart.) for his papers on the chemical nature of wax. It is nearly forty years since the Royal Society awarded the "Copley medal" to Sir Benjamin Brodie for his paper "on poisons;" the only instance of father and son receiving the ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... that by Arabian architects. Ibn Dasta found amongst them agriculture besides cattle breeding. Trade with Persia and India, as also with the Khazars and the Russians, and undoubtedly with Biarmia (Urals), was, however, their chief occupation, their main riches being furs, leather, wool, nuts, wax and so on. After their conversion to Islam they began building forts, several of which are mentioned in Russian annals. Their chief town, Bolgari or Velikij Gorod (Great Town) of the Russian annals, was often raided by the Russians. In the 13th century it was conquered ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various

... little on the subject of night shooting. Every one who has tried it knows the extreme difficulty in seeing the sights of the rifle in a dark night. The common native method is to attach a fluff of cotton wool. On a moonlight night a bit of wax, with powdered mica scattered on it, will sometimes answer. I have seen diamond sights suggested, but all are practically useless. My plan was to carry a small phial of phosphorescent oil, about one grain to a drachm of oil dissolved in a bath of warm water. ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale

... child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. 2. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; 8. And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; 4. That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. 5. And he ran onto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... cleverness of the fellow who filed that stay!" Tom cried, as they all stared. "He filled the indentation his sharp file made with a bit of wax or chewing-gum of the same general color. Why, no one would ever have noticed the least thing wrong when making the ...
— Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines - The German Spy's Secret • Charles Amory Beach

... young Neapolitan, Signor Scotti, who took the bargaining of their tour upon himself, after they had agreed to travel together, "and now as I write," said Mr. Browning in a letter from his Naples hotel to his sister Sarianna, "I hear him disputing our bill. He does not see why we should pay for six wax candles when we have used only two." The pair wandered over the enchanting shores of all the Naples region, lingered in Sorrento, drove over the picturesque road to Amalfi, and listened to the song of the sirens ...
— The Brownings - Their Life and Art • Lilian Whiting

... weather is calm and bright, and the sun shines; and she flies towards every flower where she may find sweetness. She rests not on any flower, neither for its beauty nor for its sweetness, but draws out from the cups of the flowers their sweetness and clearness—that is to say, the honey and wax, and she brings them back to the unity which is formed of the assembly of all the bees, that the honey and wax may be ...
— Light, Life, and Love • W. R. Inge

... which they were being set out, but the nicest of all was a pretty little castle made of cardboard, with windows through which you could see into the rooms. In front of the castle stood some little trees surrounding a tiny mirror which looked like a lake. Wax swans were floating about and reflecting themselves in it. That was all very pretty; but the most beautiful thing was a little lady, who stood in the open doorway. She was cut out of paper, but she had on a dress of the finest muslin, with ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang

... that which gives pleasure is especially likened to a child, because the desire of pleasure is connatural to us, especially of pleasures of touch which are directed to the maintenance of nature. Hence it is that if the concupiscence of such pleasures be fostered by consenting to it, it will wax very strong, as in the case of a child left to his own will. Wherefore the concupiscence of these pleasures stands in very great need of being chastised: and consequently chastity is applied antonomastically to such like concupiscences, even as fortitude ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... the stairs slowly. There came a knock at the door, and she opened it to an old man with a frame so attenuated that it appeared to be absolutely fleshless. His hair was white and almost touching his shoulders, and his face so colourless and immobile that it looked as if it were composed of wax; but the dark eyes under the white, shaggy brows were full ...
— The Woman's Way • Charles Garvice

... the joyousness that envelops those of twenty like a dainty garment, that beams from smooth brows like warmth and sunshine, would give them back a breath of their youth, which had already disappeared in accordance with the laws of Time? Who would wax enthusiastic at the things that had once made them enthusiastic, and which they would enjoy once more as though they were new for them too? Who would fill the house and garden with his laughter, with that careless ...
— The Son of His Mother • Clara Viebig

... one of the chief festivals, of which we now only retain the name; but in those days every family contributed its quota, or “shot for wax.”—Oliver, p. 65, note 4. ...
— Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood - Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter • J. Conway Walter

... time before they could settle down again after this, but ultimately they got back in their old position, and the infatuated Codd was just about to wax sentimental again, when he felt something behind him. He turned with a start as a portly retriever inserted his head under his left arm, and slowly but vigorously forced himself between them; then he sat on his haunches and panted, while the ...
— Many Cargoes • W.W. Jacobs

... magnificent ruin. Besides the dishes of almost untasted delicacies, the flowers had been pushed into disarray, one small vase had been upset and broken; owing to improper adjustment the candles had dripped pink wax on the table-cloth; and the ice cream, which Pansy had mistakenly served on open-work plates, ...
— Patty at Home • Carolyn Wells

... old chap," he said eagerly, "I told you it was the fault of my skis. They would stick to the snow. Oh, I say," he added, "that reminds me. I must go and buy some wax for them." ...
— Once a Week • Alan Alexander Milne

... of it, Rosendo," replied Jose, with a smile. "And in days past stranger remedies than that were used by supposedly wise people. When the eyesight was poor, they rubbed wax from the human ear upon the eyes, and I doubt not marvelous restorations of sight were made. So also dogs' teeth were ground into powder and taken to alleviate certain bodily pains. Almost everything that could be swallowed has been taken by mankind to cure ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... to save her life, and she has no more idea how to sweep a room and dust it than a baby. I had it straight from Hannah Bell that she dusted her room and swept it afterward. Think of my boy, brought up the way he has been, everything as neat as wax, if I do say it, and his victuals always cooked nice, and ready when he wanted them, marrying a girl like that. I can't and I won't have it. It's all very well now, he's captivated by a pretty face; but ...
— The Jamesons • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... hundred tapers of all sizes were kept burning by day and night, it was impossible to exhaust the supply, which went on increasing and increasing. There was a rumour that the Fathers could not even find room to store all this wax, but had to sell it over and over again; and, indeed, certain friends of the Grotto confessed, with a touch of pride, that the profit on the tapers alone would have sufficed to defray all the ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... all his adventure. Then she applied her to consoling and comforting him, saying, "Grieve not, O my son; if Almighty Allah have apportioned unto thee aught thou shalt obtain it without toil and travail.[FN18] But I would see thee wax sensible and wise, abandoning all these courses which have landed thee in poverty, O my son; and shunning songstresses and commune with the inexperienced and the society of loose livers, male and female. All such pleasures as these are for the sons of the ne'er-do-well, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... In accordance with the tradition of French breeding, so urbane, so gracious as they are, you address your neighbor—'improper.'—At a ball you walk up to a pretty woman to ask her to dance—'improper.' You wax enthusiastic, you argue, laugh, and give yourself out, you fling yourself heart and soul into the conversation, you give expression to your real feelings, you play when you are at the card-table, ...
— The Firm of Nucingen • Honore de Balzac

... interrupted by Halbert, who had waited with courteous patience for some little time, till he found, that far from drawing to a close, Sir Piercie seemed rather inclined to wax ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... led into the bedchamber, bright with wax tapers, though the sky was not yet dark. She heard a sound as of closing and locking double doors, while some one drew back a crimson, gold-edged velvet curtain, which she had seen several times, and which it was whispered concealed ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... Catherine betook herself to her bed, in a chamber hung with black, the light of day excluded, and ranks of wax tapers shedding a lugubrious light upon rows of gentlemen and ladies who had to stand there on duty, watching her as the mourners watched the King, though her lying-in-state was not always as silent; for though, there was ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge

... one other case which at first sight looks like an exception, but which is far from being one in reality, and deserves to be mentioned. In the beautiful Waxwing, (Bombycilla garrula,) the sexes are very nearly alike, and the elegant red wax tips to the wing-feathers are nearly, and sometimes quite, as conspicuous in the female as in the male. Yet it builds an open nest, and a person looking at the bird would say it ought according to my theory to cover its nest. But it is, in reality, as completely protected by ...
— Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection - A Series of Essays • Alfred Russel Wallace

... lying awake in his own bed, as he thought, in the dark night, when the poor woman came in at the door, having in her hand a wax candle, but not alight. He said to her, 'You extravagant woman! where did you get that candle?' She answered, 'It was put into my hand when I died, with the word that I was to wander till I found a fire at which to light it.' 'There!' said he, 'there's the ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... Castings. Lacquers. For Aluminum and Brass. Copper. Lubricants. Paper. Photography. Plasters. Plating, Coloring Metals. Polishes. Putty. Rust Preventives. Solders. Soldering Fluxes. Steel Tempering. Varnishes. Sealing Wax. ...
— Practical Mechanics for Boys • J. S. Zerbe

... improvement in wax work, and if properly made cannot be detected from the most expensive, artistic bronze. It is used for table, mantel and bracket ornaments, and may be exposed to dust and air without sustaining the ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous

... it was; none of your enormous dreary state-apartments, dull as a theatre in the daytime, with a bed like a mourning coach, and corners of gloom and mystery, uncomfortable even at noon, and fatal to the nerves when seen by the light of a solitary wax-candle. On the contrary, it was quite the room for a young lady: pink hangings tinted one's complexion with that roseate bloom which the poet avers is as indispensable to woman as "man's imperial front"—whatever ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville

... the pirates rowed up into the wind's eye, and got to windward of them. Their pistols and muskets had not been wetted in the rain, for each buccaneer had provided himself with an oiled cover for his firearms, the mouth of which he stopped with wax whenever it rained. The Spanish ships ran past the three leading canoas, exchanging volleys at long range. They were formed in line of battle ahead, with a ship manned by mulattoes, or "Tawnymores," in the van. This ship ran between the fourth canoa, in which Ringrose was, and the fifth ...
— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield

... arrival, Johnson said, 'I came home last night, without any incommodity, danger, or weariness, and am ready to begin a new journey. I know Mrs Boswell wished me well to go.' The irregular hours of her guest, and his habit of turning the candles downward when they did not burn brightly, letting the wax run upon the carpet, had not been quite to the taste of the hostess, who resented, 'what was very natural to a female mind,' the influence he possessed over the actions of ...
— James Boswell - Famous Scots Series • William Keith Leask

... iron blowpipes these men, by giving the blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the end of the blowpipe by keeping it in motion, they blew it into balls and rolled the ball of soft, red-hot glass on their rolling boards. Then they lifted the blowpipe and blew again, sharp and hard, forcing ...
— The Boy With the U.S. Census • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... for example the skull, may be arrested by means of Horsley's aseptic plastic wax. To stop persistent oozing from soft tissues, Horsley successfully applied a portion of living vascular tissue, such as a fragment of muscle, which readily adheres to the oozing surface and yields elements that cause coagulation of ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

... "Come, come, don't wax wrathy. Won't you have some bitters to sweeten you? No? Haven't you anything to say to the folks at home, neither? Well, then, a pleasant journey. By the way, mate, I have some good French 'bacco upon me, and if you would ...
— Tartarin of Tarascon • Alphonse Daudet

... with snow, and far below to the south was a lazy tropic river hemmed to the water's edge by forests of dense shade. There we never ventured though sometimes when the sun was hottest we flew to the very edge of the snow fields and sipped the most delicious nectar from the white wax-like flowers that grew on their ...
— Chit-Chat; Nirvana; The Searchlight • Mathew Joseph Holt

... English orchard. Everywhere down into the very sea, the Matapalos held and hung; their air-roots dangled into the very water; many of them had fallen into it, but grew on still, and blossomed with great white fragrant flowers, somewhat like those of a Magnolia, each with a shining cake of amber wax as big as a shilling in the centre; and over the Matapalos, tree on tree, liane on liane, up to a negro garden, with its strange huge- leaved vegetables and glossy fruit-trees, and its black owner standing on the cliff, and peering ...
— At Last • Charles Kingsley

... is JOHN WELLINGTON WELLS - I'm a dealer in magic and spells, In blessings and curses, And ever-filled purses, In prophecies, witches, and knells! If you want a proud foe to "make tracks" - If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax - You've but to look in On our resident Djinn, Number seventy, ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert

... seal of Kepher in wax, a finely cut scarabaeus holding the symbol of the sun between its ...
— Morning Star • H. Rider Haggard

... seized the wax taper. "Pardon me, my lord," says he. "What! a servant do it, when your son is in the room? Ah, par exemple, my dear father," said he, laughing, "you think there is no politeness left among us." And he led ...
— Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush - The Yellowplush Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray

... front room. In this, ready to his hand, were drawers little and big, full of miscellaneous papers and envelopes; pigeon-holes crammed full of answered and unanswered notes, some with crests on them, some with plain wax clinging to the flap of the broken envelopes; many held together with the gum of the common world. Here, too, were bundles of old letters tied with tape; piles of pamphlets, quaint trays holding pens and pencils, and here too was always to be found, in summer or in winter, ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith

... sheaves, And, whatsoever himself believes, Must bow to the Establisht Church belief, That the tenth is always a Protestant sheaf;— Ye calves of which the man of Heaven Takes Irish tithe, one calf in seven;[2] Ye tenths of rape, hemp, barley, flax, Eggs, timber, milk, fish and bees' wax; All things in short since earth's creation, Doomed, by the Church's dispensation, To suffer eternal decimation— Leaving the whole lay-world, since then, Reduced to nine parts out of ten; Or—as we calculate ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... hour went by. The room was in twilight. There came a knock at the door, and Mary Woodruff, a wax-taper in her hand, entered to light the gas. Having drawn the blind, and given a glance round to see that everything was in order, she addressed Nancy, her tone perfectly respectful, ...
— In the Year of Jubilee • George Gissing

... ships and sealing wax; of cabbages and kings,'" he flung at her mischievously. "I'll make music; that's better ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... Roman Catholics. At the middle altar was the mandarin, piously engaged in prayer, while two stood beside him, fanning him with large fans. {104} He frequently kissed the ground, and every time he did so, three wax tapers were presented to him, which he first elevated in the air, and then gave to one of the priests, who placed them before a statue of Buddha, but without lighting them. The music was performed by three men, one of whom twanged a stringed instrument, while ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

... seemed writ in great letters," brought back the light of day. But the sunshine began to last longer than before, and the clouds were less heavy. The "visage" of the threatening texts was changed; "they looked not on him so grimly as before;" "that about Esau's birthright began to wax weak and withdraw and vanish." "Now remained only the hinder part of the tempest. The thunder was gone; only a few drops fell on him ...
— The Life of John Bunyan • Edmund Venables

... the splendid costumes of the Clergy, the uniforms, civil and military, and the magnificent dresses of the ladies. The greatest mistake was the conflict of lights—the windows not having been darkened, though countless thousands of wax candles were lighted. The music was very fine.... The object of our neighbours seemed to be to scan and criticise the dress of the Bride, and the wonderful penetration and accuracy of their eagle glances was to us something incredible! ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 • Queen Victoria

... hand over the candelabra. Sparks were seen to shoot from his finger tips, and in an instant the seven lights were glowing. That was an electrical trick. In reality the candles were gas jets, made to look like wax tapers, and Joe lighted them from an electric current produced by a dry battery he carried ...
— Joe Strong The Boy Fire-Eater - The Most Dangerous Performance on Record • Vance Barnum

... carke, and care, For her love I droop, and dare, For her love my bliss is bare. And I wax wan!" ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol

... approve of this sort of advertisement, but I found that it could not be checked, and so grew indifferent to it. One day I received a registered letter containing money. It was stamped all over with the cheapest kind of sealing-wax, and, on opening the envelope, I was surprised to find a letter from my Uncle Dion, with an old, crumpled hundred-florin bill, of a kind that had long gone out of circulation, and which showed every mark of having issued from one ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... without walls but encompassed by columns, with elaborate ivory and gold decoration. In it a couch of similar material was placed, surrounded by heads of land and sea creatures, and adorned with purple coverlets interwoven with gold. Upon it had been laid a kind of wax image of Pertinax, arrayed in triumphal attire. A well-formed boy was scaring the flies away from it with peacock feathers, as though it were really a person sleeping. While it was lying there in state, Severus, we senators, and our wives ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio

... skull of one drunken lad—not twenty, by his looks—who lay upon the ground with a bottle to his mouth, the lead from the roof came streaming down in a shower of liquid fire, white hot; melting his head like wax. When the scattered parties were collected, men—living yet, but singed as with hot irons—were plucked out of the cellars, and carried off upon the shoulders of others, who strove to wake them as they went along, with ribald jokes, and left them, dead, in the passages of hospitals. ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens

... George. A small round table was set in a pleasant room on the first floor; a bright array of glass and silver glittered under the light of five wax-candles in a silver candelabrum; and the waiter was beginning to be nervous ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... you know right well you did; And, with them, words of so sweet breath compos'd As made the things more rich: their perfume lost, Take these again; for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. ...
— Hamlet • William Shakespeare

... Ulysses took leave of Circe, and, on nearing the reef of the Sirens, directed his men to bind him fast to the mast, paying no heed to his gestures, after he had stopped their ears with soft wax. In this way he heard, without perishing, the Sirens' wonderful song, and it was only when it had died away in the distance and the spell ceased that his men unbound him ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber

... of 1865 I was in Chicago, and one day visited the great charity fair held for the benefit of the families of those soldiers who were killed or wounded during the war. In one part of the building was a wax figure of Jefferson Davis, wearing over his other garments the dress in which it was reported that he was captured. There was always a great crowd around this figure, and I was naturally attracted towards it. ...
— Behind the Scenes - or, Thirty years a slave, and Four Years in the White House • Elizabeth Keckley

... independent, and to this end the ruling family had made a strange law with regard to foreigners. Every stranger entering the city gates had to present himself before the governor and receive from him a seal of red wax on the thumb. If a stranger neglected to do this, he was liable to be ...
— Historic Boyhoods • Rupert Sargent Holland

... policeman saluted him, and the priest urged him to keep bees: 'You might come round to the Vicarage, now that you have money and spare time, and perhaps buy a few hives. It does no harm to remember God in one's prosperity and keep bees and give wax ...
— Selected Polish Tales • Various

... such altercation as seemed to threaten an abrupt dissolution of their society; but Mr Bramble set a guard over his own irascibility, the more vigilantly as the officer was his guest; and when, in spite of all his efforts, he began to wax warm, the other prudently cooled ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... saw the scissors she turned as yellow as wax, and when they told her to sit down on the sacrificial chair, she felt herself grow faint and had to ask for a drink of water; and when they tied the wrapper round her throat it is related that she would have immediately torn it asunder ...
— First Love (Little Blue Book #1195) - And Other Fascinating Stories of Spanish Life • Various

... I have too much else to do and too large a place, a couple of hundred acres engaged in a small and large way,—a variety of ways—with nut trees; and the few I have cared to save after blight has begun I have saved by cutting it out very thoroughly and using either white paint or grafting wax. I used also pine tar and some gas tar. I killed some good trees that I wanted particularly to save by putting on ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... took some wax and worked long, fashioning it into forms, but when they brought them to the fire the wax melted, and they saw that men could not be made in ...
— Philippine Folk Tales • Mabel Cook Cole

... slave trade, a commerce is carried on in wax and sandal-wood, which the natives are forced to deliver up at a small and almost nominal price. The Governor and his officials allow no one else but themselves to embark in trade, greatly to the disgust of the natives and Chinese, ...
— Mark Seaworth • William H.G. Kingston

... temporary chapel were thrown open. Trumpets flourished, processions marched, and the archbishop began his business at an altar of massive gold, placed under a yellow silk pavilion, with pyramids of lights before it. Wax tapers, though it was noon-day, shone in every corner of the apartments. Two rows of pages, gorgeously accoutred, and holding enormous torches, stood on each side his Royal Highness, and made him the prettiest courtesies imaginable, to the sound of an execrable ...
— Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents • William Beckford

... that this was the only plan; but who was it to be? "I'll be the Blessed Virgin," said Jane; "there's mother's blue muslin dress in the nursery cupboard, an' I can have the wax flowers out of the glass shade in ...
— The Weans at Rowallan • Kathleen Fitzpatrick

... at the stake, and how the fate of Serepta and wimmen wuz tremblin' in the balances, I spread them errents out before him. And bein' truthful and above board, I told him that Serepta wuz middlin' disagreeable and very humbly, but she needed her rights jest as much as though she wuz a wax-doll. And I went on and told him how she and her relations had suffered from want of rights, and how dretfully she had suffered from the Ring till I declare talkin' about them little children of hern, and her agony, I got about as fierce actin' ...
— Samantha on the Woman Question • Marietta Holley

... coral, quicksilver, copper, and white cloth, from Cambaya and Mengala; rugs, carpets, fine counterpanes, camlets, from Persia; brocades, ivory, rhubarb, cardamoms, cassia, [274] incense, benzoin, wax, china, lac for medicine and dyes, cloves, and mace, from Banda; with gold, silver, and pearls, medicinal woods, aroes, eagle-wood, calambuco, [275] ebony, and innumerable other rare plants, drugs, spices, and ornaments. They say that Venecia lost all this when the ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVI, 1609 • H.E. Blair

... is a composite drawing from reconstructions of the enterons of two embryos of approximately this stage. One of these reconstructions was plotted on paper from a series of transverse sections; the other was made in wax from a series of sagittal sections. For the sake of simplicity the gill clefts are not represented, and the pharynx, mouth, and liver are represented in outline only. For the same reason the lung rudiment of one ...
— Development of the Digestive Canal of the American Alligator • Albert M. Reese

... drooped, with a stone fountain between them, now parched in the sun. The circular garden led to a long garden, where the gardener's shears had scarcely been, unless now and then, when he cut a bough of blossom for his beloved. A few tall trees shaded it, and round bushes with wax-like flowers mobbed their heads together in a row. A garden smoothly laid with turf, divided by thick hedges, with raised beds of bright flowers, such as we keep within walls in England, would have been out of place upon the side of ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf

... of his servant, and bowed his pride to flatter Skinner, and soon saw this was the way to make him a clerk of wax. He became his accomplice, and on this his master told him everything it was impossible to keep from him. At this moment Captain Dodd was announced. Mr. Hardie explained to his new ally the danger that threatened ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various

... in winter, though, not very numerous in summer. I value them because they are handsome birds, and both male and female sing in autumn and winter, when bird music is at a premium. I won't speak of the Carolina wax-wing, alias cedar or cherry bird, now. Next June, when strawberries and cherries are ripe, we can ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe

... that thought he was a hound began to yap and thought he was belling; but still G. G. looked into the snowbird's eyes and she into his, deeper and deeper, until neither had any secret of soul from the other. So, upon an altar cloth, two wax candles burn side by side, ...
— IT and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris

... operatives of this work, whatsoever might be their opinions. M. H—— had no evidence in relation to this terrible organization, nor did he know where it met. Towards the end of February, 1819, M. H—— received a letter sealed in black, and with the impression on the wax of an auger piercing the globe. The strange seal did not escape his notice. The direction was, "M. H——, for himself alone, confidential." The superior of the political police read the ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various

... various elements keep in constant commotion about him; the other, with its manners, its laws, its fashions, its wit, its attainments, its superstitions, its events, and its people, whom all these first causes in turn mould like soft wax. It is needless to say that such a picture will be of huge proportions. Instead of one personality, like that with which the abstract drama of the old school is content, there will be twenty, forty, fifty,—who knows how many?—of every size and of every degree of importance. There will be a crowd ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot

... me now," she implored him. "Can't you see I've worried myself nearly to death?" She was not going to weep, she was going to wax angry. ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane

... third spring that she acquires the same adult plumage as that possessed by the male at a much earlier age. The female Bombycilla carolinensis differs very little from the male, but the appendages, which like beads of red sealing-wax ornament the wing-feathers (30. When the male courts the female, these ornaments are vibrated, and "are shewn off to great advantage," on the outstretched wings: A. Leith Adams, 'Field and Forest Rambles,' 1873, p. 153.), are not developed in her so early in life as in the male. In the male ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin

... library of the choicest music; and all the materials of art. The air of elegance and cheerful comfort that pervaded these apartments, so unusual in this land, the bright blaze of the fire, evert the pleasant wax-lights, all combined to deprive the moment of that feeling of gloom and exhaustion which attends an arrival at a strange place at a late hour, and Henrietta looked around her, and almost fancied she was once more at Ducie. Lord Montfort introduced his fellow-travellers to their ...
— Henrietta Temple - A Love Story • Benjamin Disraeli

... do's with my Bubbies play, Squeeze my small Hand, as soft as Wax or Clay, Or lays his Hands upon my tender Knees, What strange tumultuous Joys upon me seize! My Breasts do heave, and languish do my Eyes, Panting's my Heart, and trembling are my Thighs; I sigh, I wish, I pray, and seem to die, In one continu'd ...
— The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony: Responses From Women • Various

... darkness all the while. As I had been obliged, while in China, to be about so much at night, I had provided myself with one of those compact lanterns, which can be folded up, and carried in the pocket, with a good supply of best wax matches. The first thing to be done was to strike a light, and see what sort of a place I was floating in. The sensation of floating in equilibrium was delightful and soothing; and yet I felt that it would be a relief to touch something ...
— John Whopper - The Newsboy • Thomas March Clark

... little and then sighed. She wished he would come nearer, or look at her differently: she felt, under his cool eye, no more compelling than a woman of wax in a show-case. ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton

... is like an empty schedule and a wax tablet; whereas form is like a painted shape and words set down, from which the reader reaches the end of science. And when the soul knows these, it desires to know the wonderful painter of them, to ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various

... brass. He knew that till he had taught a man to love his brother whom he had seen he could never make him love God whom he has not seen. To vary the metaphor, his plan was, first warm and soften your wax then begin to shape it after Heaven's pattern. The old-fashioned way is freeze, petrify and mold your wax by a single process. Not that he was mawkish. No man rebuked sin more terribly than he often rebuked it in many of these cells; and when he did so see what he gained by the personal ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... of the largest room was a small table, upon which rested a small object covered with a dome-shaped glass shade, precisely like that which covered the basket of wax flowers in Grandmother's parlour. Rosemary went to it with keen interest and leaned over the table ...
— Master of the Vineyard • Myrtle Reed

... said Joe, "but I don't know, somehow, what sort of present to make, Miss Schomberg, yet I think I might pay for all the wax lights and ornaments, and the filagree work ...
— Emilie the Peacemaker • Mrs. Thomas Geldart

... from the Commissariat, nothing was more common than for him to kill the first head of cattle he found grazing on the skirt of the forest; secure the small portion he wanted; and leave the remainder to serve as carrion to the birds of prey of the country. Nay, to such an extent wax this wanton spoliation carried, that instances have repeatedly occurred wherein cattle have been slain and left to putrify in the sun, merely because a warrior found it the most convenient mode by which to ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... song, as She is, new, Earth should turn in time thereto! New, and new, and thrice so new, All old sweets, New Sweet, meant you! Fair, I had a dream of thee, When my young heart beat prophecy, And in apparition elate Thy little breasts knew wax-ed great, Sister of the Canticle, And thee for God grown marriageable. How my desire desired your day, That, wheeled in rumour on its way, Shook me thus with presentience! Then Eden's lopped tree shall shoot again: For who Christ's eyes shall miss, ...
— New Poems • Francis Thompson

... glow of life wax dim in thickly gathering gloom, Shall mortal scoff at sting of Death, shall scorn the victory of ...
— The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi • Richard F. Burton

... most unreasonably. But I must confess 'twas not for that, for I did not know it then, but going to meet him (as I usually do), when he gave me your letter I found the upper seal broken open, and underneath where it uses to be only closed with a little wax, there was a seal, which though it were an anchor and a heart, methought it did not look like yours, but less, and much worse cut. This suspicion was so strong upon me, that I chid till the poor fellow was ready to cry, and swore to me that it had never been touched ...
— The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 • Edward Abbott Parry

... for First-day last I mentioned its being an instructive meeting to me. Towards the conclusion a simile of this kind arose and spread before my view: As wax when melted by the fire or the candle is then only capable of receiving the impression of the stamp put upon it, so also are our minds only capable of receiving impressions of divine good when our spirits are ...
— Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel • John Yeardley

... not there alone. The undulation is the work of two collaborators: it expresses both the nature of the object which provokes it and that of the nervous apparatus which is its vehicle. It is like the furrow traced in the wax of the phonograph which expresses the collaboration of an aerial vibration with a stylus, a cylinder, and a clock-work movement. This engraved line resembles, in short, neither the phonographic apparatus nor the aerial vibration, although it results from the combination ...
— The Mind and the Brain - Being the Authorised Translation of L'me et le Corps • Alfred Binet

... box of colored crayons; in another, a little pad of drawing paper; another held an envelope stamped and addressed and a sheet of writing paper. In another was a lead pencil; the fifth was a cake of sweet chocolate, and the sixth package was a little lump of modeling wax. The two long thin packages proved to be boxes ...
— Sunny Boy in the Country • Ramy Allison White

... Sword and the Wreath,' by Miss A. E. Rose, is a poetical conception, beautifully elaborated. The flowers have no appearance of having been copied from wax or colored stucco, but are faithful representations of the actual, fragile, delicate texture of the lovely children of the garden. The method of presentation suggests a memory of La Farge, but Miss Rose is too talented and original ever ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... is generally admitted to be contemporary with the peculiar type of architecture of which I write, but I am debarred by lack of space from giving them a full description, or mentioning the legends connected with each. The beautifully-carved cornices, of the sheep-skin and bees'-wax order, the elaborate mural—. Oh, gammon! Many happy returns of the twenty-sixth of last month to you, old boy. I quite forgot my own birthday, so it could hardly be expected that I should remember yours. People often do what they're not expected ...
— Canada for Gentlemen • James Seton Cockburn

... steamer for England; and if a convoy were accidentally delayed en route, the treasure had to lie in the post office till the next mail left. Raymond's plan of campaign was soon settled. He was a man who could make his way in any company, and he had no difficulty in obtaining wax impressions of the postmaster's keys. The postmaster, indeed, was one of a group of admiring friends whom he entertained at dinner the evening before he ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Detective Stories • Various

... still continue by propagation, notwithstanding the decay of the individuals, and the death of our bodies is but matter going to be dressed in some new form; the impressions may vary, but the wax continues still the same, and indeed death is in effect the very same thins with our birth; for as to die is only to cease to be what we formerly were, so to be born is to begin to be something which we were not ...
— Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers - Reprinted From an English Work, Entitled "Half-Hours With - The Freethinkers." • Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts

... were divided to the moment, and then the sealing-wax which fastened the brown paper further was broken, and two white paper packets were revealed, also carefully sealed up. This wax was broken in turn, and with trembling hands we removed the white paper, to find within something ...
— Burr Junior • G. Manville Fenn

... in one of these processions, the imposing nature of which may be imagined from the gorgeous materials and fantastic dresses depicted in the illustration. The car in the foreground bears the trophy of the wax-figure makers, whose trade is one of the most lucrative in Japan, as the Japanese not only perpetuate their celebrities by wax-work effigies, but the majority of the people, being professors of the Sintoo religion, have Lares and Penates of the same material, called 'Kamis,' which are ...
— Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customs • J. M. W. Silver

... aware of were six small men who were seated on low roots. They were all dressed in tight green clothes and little leathern aprons, and they wore tall green hats which wobbled when they moved. They were all busily engaged making shoes. One was drawing out wax ends on his knee, another was softening pieces of leather in a bucket of water, another was polishing the instep of a shoe with a piece of curved bone, another was paring down a heel with a short broad-bladed knife, and another was hammering wooden pegs into a sole. He had all the pegs in his ...
— The Crock of Gold • James Stephens

... n. an and-iron Ahskebug, n. a green leaf Ahgahwahtaown, n. an umbrella Ahdahwaweneneh, n. a merchant Ahkahnok, n. a corn-cob Azheshahwask, n. a rifle Ahnejemin, n. pease Auskig, n. a seal Ahgookewahsegun, n. sealing-wax Ahpahgedoon, v. throw it ...
— Sketch of Grammar of the Chippeway Languages - To Which is Added a Vocabulary of some of the Most Common Words • John Summerfield

... fast, but their fountains will last, As the stream passes ever, and never is past: Exhausted so quickly, replenished so soon, They wax and they wane like the horns ...
— The Poetry of Wales • John Jenkins

... the imaginary American's hat, he escapes by the fanlight, and he goes out by the back way to avoid the housekeeper's observation. He has arranged beforehand for this, too. He has seized an opportunity when the housekeeper has been out of his box to get wax impressions of these two keys, and he has made copies of them. And here we come on a curious thing. It is easy enough to understand why he should foresee and get himself a key for the back door, in order to make his escape. But why the key of the hose-cupboard? Why, indeed, should he ...
— The Red Triangle - Being Some Further Chronicles of Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison

... sick with pain and mortification. How I got through my day's work I do not remember; but you can understand that my demoralization was complete by this time, and that when Mr. Seabrook returned I was like wax in his hands. All that I stipulated for was a little more time; he had my ...
— The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems • Frances Fuller Victor

... drunk. He bought an Italian stiletto (by great luck he had a sallow complexion naturally); a silk rope-ladder ("which is of the first importance"); several reams of paper for love-letters, and a supply of rose-coloured and avanturine wax.[206] He is going to be, if he is not as yet, "fatal," "vague," "fallen-angelical," "volcanic." There is only one desirable quality which unkind fate has put beyond his reach. He is not, and cannot make himself, an illegitimate child! Now, I am sorry for any one who, having ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... came and whither they were bound. Through the said interpreter they answered that they were bound for the city of Manila, at the order of Limansacay, king of Mindanao; and that they were taking to his Lordship, the governor, two gold-emblazoned daggers, and two great loaves of wax. Furthermore, the said king ordered them to collect five taes of gold owed him by some Indians. All this, they said, was to be given to the said governor in token of recognition and peace, which they were going, in the name of the said king Limansacay, to ask ...
— The Philippine Islands 1493-1898, Vol. 4 of 55 - 1576-1582 • Edited by E. H. Blair and J. A. Robertson

... grass." "They pay great reverence to all rivers, and must do nothing to defile them; in burying they never put the body in the ground till it has been torn by some bird or dog; they cover the body with wax, and then put it in the ground." "The Magi think they do a meritorious act when they kill ants, ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... not tell me the exact reason. I tried to find out, but he was as close as—as—wax," said Mr. Heron, trying to find a suitable simile. "He said he was much obliged to us all for our kindness to him; had no fault to find with anything or anybody; liked the place; but, all the same, he wanted to go, and go he must. I offered him double the salary—at least, I ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... me knocking at the Count's door. The grim serving-man admitted me to the pleasant chamber which should have been mine own. A dozen wax candles burned in sconces, and on the table among fruits and the remains of supper stood a handsome candelabra of silver. A small fire of logs had been lit on the hearth, and before it in an armchair sat a strange figure ...
— The Moon Endureth—Tales and Fancies • John Buchan

... and the ear-thyrls (eyeholes, or windows) no longer admitted the light of the sun, long candlesticks dipped in wax were lighted and fastened into sockets along the sides of the hall. Then the makers, or bards as they came to be called in later days, sang of the gods and goddesses or of marvelous deeds done by the men of old. Out-of-doors huge bonfires ...
— Yule-Tide in Many Lands • Mary P. Pringle and Clara A. Urann

... atmosphere. bawled, cried out. ere, before. bad, ill; vicious. e'er, ever. bade, past tense of bid. heir, one who inherits. baize, a kind of cloth. aisle, walk in a church. bays, plural of bay. isle, an island. bear, an animal. I'll, I will. bare, naked. cere, to cover with wax. bay, part of the ocean. sear, to burn; dry. bey, a Turkish officer. seer, a prophet. be, to exist. ball, a round body. bee, an insect. bawl, to ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey

... that; groceries twice a week was sufficient for most people. From here on the floor above the street she could easily look into Elizabeth's basket, and she certainly was carrying nothing away with her from the grocer's, for the only thing there was a small bottle done up in white paper with sealing wax, which, Diva had no need to be told, certainly came from the chemist's, and was no doubt connected with too ...
— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson

... had also put on her best dress, a much grander affair of black silk than the rose-pink negligee, which Milly had compelled her to bestow upon Amelia. And she had lighted the fire in the living-room and all the wax candles, though it was still warm outdoors and they had to open the street windows and endure ...
— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... her life, and she thought she would like to bring her own wooden doll, "Martha Stoddard," that her father had made for her years ago, up to the attic to visit with these beautiful dolls of china, wax, and kid. But Rose had opened the book and stood beside the table waiting for Anne ...
— A Little Maid of Massachusetts Colony • Alice Turner Curtis

... sins of idolatry and superstition will assuredly provoke the Divine displeasure, and kindle the fire of its wrath, as they did in the days of Moses, after the worshipping of the Golden Calf by the Israelites. Thus spake offended Heaven:—'Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.' Grievously will the Lord punish such as are guilty of these sins, for hath He not declared, as we read in Leviticus, 'I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries ...
— The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 - An Historical Romance • W. Harrison Ainsworth

... centuries ago an air of elegance hung about it. It suggested spinnets and powdered wigs. And then, as fashion turned to commonness, the parlour grew stuffy with disuse, until it is to-day the room reserved for a vain display, consecrated to wax-flowers and framed photographs, hermetically sealed save when the voice of gentility bids its furtive door be opened. The American "parlor" resembles the "parlour" of the eighteenth century as little as the "parlour" of the Victorian age. It is busy, public, and multifarious. ...
— American Sketches - 1908 • Charles Whibley

... Scamperdale, patting Jack on the back; 'you did well, my old buck-o'-wax; and, by Jove! we'll have a bottle of port—a bottle of port, as I live,' repeated his lordship, as if he had made up his mind to ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... came up, threw one snowball, and ran away. I guess he meant to hit somebody else and the snowball hit Mr. Felps instead," went on the small boy. "Don't let him know I told you, or he'll wax me ...
— Guns And Snowshoes • Captain Ralph Bonehill

... the unlucky damsel who selected a wrong shade, or set in a false stitch. The natural result of this was that the pine-cone, kept by Olympias as a private barometer, was anxiously consulted on the least appearance of clouds. Diana asserted that she offered a wax candle to Saint Wulstan every month for fair weather. One of the young ladies always had to accompany her mistress, and the fervent hope of each was to escape this promotion. Felicia alone never expressed this hope, never joined in any tirades against the Countess, ...
— A Forgotten Hero - Not for Him • Emily Sarah Holt

... Enormous consumption of wax in the churches of the middle ages. In the cathedral of Wittenberg alone, a short time before the Reformation, more than 35,000 pounds of wax candles etc. were burned yearly. At the same time, honey was generally ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... hollow, he pushed the matting into a more central position. Then stretching himself upon his face and leaning his chin upon his hands, he made a careful study of the trampled mud in front of him. "Hullo!" said he, suddenly. "What's this?" It was a wax vesta half burned, which was so coated with mud that it looked at first like ...
— Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle



Words linked to "Wax" :   cover, wane, advance, increase, carnauba, lipide, gain, lipoid, ceresin, spermaceti, paraffin scale, waxing, cerumen, jump, bayberry tallow, ski wax, paraffin, Japan tallow, lipid



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