waxwork (wakswerk)

1. Work in wax; especially, figures or ornaments made of wax; in ordinary usage, figures, as of real persons, usually of life-size, and more or le of deceptive resemblance, the heads, hands, etc., being in wax, and the rest of the figure so set up and clothed as to increase the imitative effect. way Specifically-2. Noting certain complexions. (a) Pallid or blanched; of a translucent pallor, as in bloodle ne . (b) Of a dull, pasty, whitish color, sometimes inclining to the yellowishne of raw beeswax. This is a complexion almost diagnostic of the so-called scrofulous or cancerous diathesis, and of persons in whom the opium habit is confirmed and of long standing. 3. Made of wax; abounding in wax; waxed: as, a waxy dre ing for leather. - Waxy degeneration. (a) Same as lardaceous disease (which see, under lardaceous ). (b) A change of parts of the muscular fibers into a peculiar hyaline substance, which differs from lardacein; it occurs in certain cases of typhoid fever, meningitis, and other acute febrile disorders. - Waxy liver, kidney, spleen, etc., a liver, kidney, spleen, etc., which has undergone waxy degeneration. waxy2 (wak'si), a. [ It would cheer him up more than anything if I could make him a little waxy with me. Dickens , Bleak House, xxiv.