Waxwork

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A figure made of wax, especially an effigy of a famous person. countable

    "The amateur tenor, whose vocal villainies / All desire to shirk, / Shall during off-hours, / Exhibit his powers / To Madame Tussaud's waxwork."

  2. 2
    an effigy (usually of a famous person) made of wax wordnet
  3. 3
    The art of producing such figures. uncountable

    "Waxwork is a fine art, but it differs from all other fine arts in that its main purpose is one that is expressly rejected by all those other arts."

  4. 4
    twining shrub of North America having yellow capsules enclosing scarlet seeds wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
american bittersweetbittersweetbittersweetbustcarvingcelastrus scandens

Example

More examples

"The amateur tenor, whose vocal villainies / All desire to shirk, / Shall during off-hours, / Exhibit his powers / To Madame Tussaud's waxwork."

Etymology

From wax + work.

Related phrases

Roxbury waxworkwaxwork-man

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.