waxen

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of waxen Instead, the moss’s telltale sign of woe is its glum, grayish hue, a waxen appearance that comes from ferns and algae that have crept over it. Sabrina Imbler, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Dec. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for waxen
Adjective
  • During a visit in August with two Times reporters, Mr. Perez’s skin was sallow.
    Aimee Ortiz, New York Times, 7 Dec. 2023
  • An awkward, sallow, provincial, minor army officer, Napoleon, was irresistibly drawn to Joséphine, attracted by her proximity to the most powerful men in France.
    Anne Higonnet, Vogue, 17 Nov. 2023
Adjective
  • The colors would wash across the Los Angeles basin and light the tree from underneath, making its orange-red bark glow and waxy green needles sparkle.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The supple leather of a Birkin bag and the waxy wood of a surfboard.
    Sophia Panych, Allure, 16 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Morfydd Clark, pallid at first, has some emotive scenes at the wedding when Ophelia rails at Hamlet for turning away from her.
    Caryn James, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Yet senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk recently took one of those pallid lumps and coaxed utter brilliance from it.
    Chris Morocco, Bon Appetit Magazine, 14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Given shorter travel times, a greater number of people would be able to experience its otherworldly ashen plains.
    Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2025
  • In his post-game meeting with reporters, New York coach Tom Thibodeau looked ashen and was at loss for explaining what unfolded.
    Sean Gregory, Time, 22 May 2025
Adjective
  • Ryan didn’t waver about his feelings in a follow-up after his sickly outing.
    David Brown, Twin Cities, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Cinematographer James Friend creates a purgatorial realm of disorienting angles and neon lights too sickly to be beautiful, the nightmarishness further underlined by Volker Bertelman’s thundering score.
    Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • With pale, irregular surfaces dotted with black bits of char, the homely slabs aren’t much to look at, but the first bite packs a big smoky punch that only grows with each subsequent chew.
    Robert F. Moss, Southern Living, 17 Sep. 2025
  • Create a neutral fall display by grouping elegant white and pale-orange pumpkins.
    Maria Sabella, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Plus, the kid isn’t dead either, as his flailing pale self that looks on the verge of the cadaverous pops out of the trunk Jack shoves him in.
    Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 1 Sep. 2024
  • Moreover, keeping the cadaverous Biden in the White House is a daily reminder to the American people of the feebleness and anemia of the Democratic Party, which taints Harris by association.
    Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
Adjective
  • Ash Wednesday this year – one of the most somber celebrations in the Catholic calendar, marking the beginning of Lent – saw a flurry of videos posted by Gen Z showing off their ashy foreheads.
    Joseph Ataman, CNN Money, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Graff tugs the reader from the earliest experiments in radiation to the young pilots who made an ashy hole of Nagasaki.
    Book Marks September 11, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Waxen.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/waxen. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.

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