different between flourish vs wax

English

Alternative forms

• florysh, floryshe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English floryschen, from Old French floriss-, stem of some conjugated forms of florir (compare French fleurir), from Vulgar Latin *flor?re, from Latin fl?re? (“I bloom”) (and conjugation partly from fl?r?sc?), from fl?s (“flower”). See flower + -ish.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fl??.??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fl??.??/, /?fl?.??/
  • (hypercorrection) IPA^(key): /?fl??.??/
• (accents without the hurry–furry merger)
• (accents with the hurry–furry merger)

Verb

flourish (third-person singular simple present flourishes, present participle flourishing, simple past and past participle flourished)

1. (intransitive) To thrive or grow well.

2. (intransitive) To prosper or fare well.
   • 1795, Robert Nelson, A Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England

     Bad men as frequently prosper and flourish, and that by the means of their wickedness.
3. (intransitive) To be in a period of greatest influence.

4. (transitive) To develop; to make thrive; to expand.
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     Bottoms of thread […] which with a good needle, perhaps may be flourished into large works.

5. (transitive) To make bold, sweeping movements with.

6. (intransitive) To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion.
7. (intransitive) To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions.
   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

     They dilate […] and flourish long upon little incidents.

8. (intransitive) To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures.
9. (transitive) To adorn with beautiful figures or rhetoric; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish.
   • 1716, Elijah Fenton, an ode to John Gower

     With shadowy verdure flourish'd high,

     A sudden youth the groves enjoy.

   • c. 1603-1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act IV, Scene 1

     To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin, Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit.

10. (intransitive) To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude.
11. (intransitive, obsolete) To boast; to vaunt; to brag.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:prosper

Translations

Noun

flourish (plural flourishes)

1. A dramatic gesture such as the waving of a flag.
2. An ornamentation.

4. (music) A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare.

5. (architecture) A decorative embellishment on a building.

Translations

References

• flourish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• rushfoil

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?ks, IPA^(key): /wæks/
• Rhymes: -æks
• Homophones: whacks (in accents with the wine-whine merger), wacks

Etymology 1

From Middle English wax, from Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahs?, from Proto-Indo-European *wo?-so-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Woaks (“wax”), West Frisian waaks (“wax”), Dutch was (“wax”), German Wachs (“wax”), Norwegian voks (“wax”); and with Lithuanian vaškas (“wax”), Proto-Slavic *vosk? (“wax”).

Noun

wax (countable and uncountable, plural waxes)

1. Beeswax.
2. Earwax.

   Synonym: (medical term) cerumen

3. Any oily, water-resistant, solid or semisolid substance; normally long-chain hydrocarbons, alcohols or esters.
4. Any preparation containing wax, used as a polish.

   Synonym: polish

5. (uncountable, music, informal) The phonograph record format for music.

   Synonyms: vinyl, record

   • 1943, Time

     What really started the corn sprouting on Broadway was a lugubrious tune by Louisiana's Jimmie Davis called It Makes No Difference Now. In the late '30s Decca's Recording Chief David Kapp heard this Texas hit and got it on wax.

6. (US, dialect) A thick syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple and then cooling it.
7. (US, slang) A type of drugs with as main ingredients weed oil and butane; hash oil

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

wax (not comparable)

1. Made of wax.

Synonyms

• waxen

Derived terms

See under the noun section above

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English waxen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

wax (third-person singular simple present waxes, present participle waxing, simple past and past participle waxed)

1. (transitive) To apply wax to (something, such as a shoe, a floor, a car, or an apple), usually to make it shiny.

   Synonyms: buff, shine, polish, furbish, burnish

2. (transitive) To remove hair at the roots from (a part of the body) by coating the skin with a film of wax that is then pulled away sharply.
3. (transitive, informal) To defeat utterly.
4. (transitive, slang) To kill, especially to murder a person.

   Synonyms: bump off, knock off, whack; see also Thesaurus:kill

   • 2009, Dean R. Koontz and Ed Gorman, Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: City of Night, ?ISBN, page 106:

     "You telling me you know who really waxed him and your mom?" / "Yeah," she lied. / "Just who pulled the trigger or who ordered it to be pulled?"

5. (transitive, archaic, usually of a musical or oral performance) To record. [from 1900]

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxan (“to wax, grow, be fruitful, increase, become powerful, flourish”), from Proto-Germanic *wahsijan? (“to grow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?weg- (“to grow, increase”). Cognate with Scots wax (“to grow”), West Frisian waakse (“to grow”), Low German wassen, Dutch wassen (“to grow”), German wachsen (“to grow”), Danish and Norwegian vokse (“to grow”), Swedish växa (“to grow”), Icelandic vaxa (“to grow”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (wahsjan, “to grow”); and with Ancient Greek ?????? (aéxein), Latin auxilium. It is in its turn cognate with augeo. See eke.

Verb

wax (third-person singular simple present waxes, present participle waxing, simple past waxed or (archaic) wex, past participle waxed or (dialectal, archaic) waxen)

2. (intransitive, copulative, literary) To increasingly assume the specified characteristic.

   Synonym: become
3. (intransitive, literary) To grow.

   Antonym: wane
4. (intransitive, of the moon) To appear larger each night as a progression from a new moon to a full moon.
5. (intransitive, of the tide) To move from low tide to high tide.

Usage notes

• Older forms are: 2nd per. sing, waxest (archaic), 3rd per. sing. waxeth (archaic), and plural form waxen (obsolete).
• Alternative simple past form is wex (obsolete) and the alternative past participle is waxen (obsolete).

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

wax (uncountable)

1. (rare) The process of growing.

Derived terms

• wax-kernel
• waxless

Translations

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain; probably from phrases like to wax angry, wax wode, and similar (see Etymology 2, above).

Noun

wax (plural waxes)

1. (dated, colloquial) An outburst of anger.
   • 1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York 2007, page 161:

     ‘That's him to a T,’ she would murmur; or, ‘Just wait till he reads this’; or, ‘Ah, won't that put him in a wax!’

Derived terms

• waxy

See also

• waxen-kernel
• waxloke

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English weax, from Proto-Germanic *wahs?.

Alternative forms

• waxe, wex, wexe, waxs, wexs, vax, vex

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /waks/, /w?ks/

Noun

wax (plural waxes)

2. wax (beeswax, sealing wax, etc.)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

Related terms

• grene wax
• medewax
• waxen (“to wax”)

Descendants

• English: wax
• Scots: wax

References

• “wax, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

A back-formation from waxen (“to grow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /waks/

Noun

wax (uncountable)

2. (rare) growth, increase

Descendants

• English: wax

References

• “wax, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

Verb

wax

1. Alternative form of waxen (“to grow”)

Etymology 4

Verb

wax

1. Alternative form of waxen (“to wax”)

Somali

Noun

wax ?

1. something