beeswax

English

Etymology

Beeswax

From bee +‎ -s- +‎ wax.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiːzwæks/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːzwæks

Noun

beeswax (usually uncountable, plural beeswaxes)

1. A wax secreted by bees from which they make honeycomb; or, the processed form of this wax used in the manufacture of various goods.

   The candle was made entirely of natural beeswax.

   She polished the furniture with beeswax to give it a shine.

   The beekeeper collected honey and beeswax from the hives.

2. (informal, Canada, US, humorous) Business, as in such phrases as mind your own beeswax and none of your beeswax.

Synonyms

• E901 (when used as a glazing agent)

Derived terms

• mind your own beeswax

Translations

wax secreted by bees

• Arabic: شَمْع الْعَسَل m (šamʕ al-ʕasal)
• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܫܲܥܘܼܬ݂ܵܐ (šaˁūṯā)

• Armenian: մեղրամոմ (hy) (meġramom)
• Assamese: মৌসিটা (mouxita), মম (mom)
• Azerbaijani: mum (az), arı mumu
• Bashkir: балауыҙ (balawıź)
• Belarusian: пчалі́ны воск m (pčalíny vosk)
• Bengali: মোম (bn) (mōm)
• Bhojpuri: मोम (mōm)
• Bulgarian: пче́лен во́сък m (pčélen vósǎk)
• Catalan: cera d'abella f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蜜蠟 / 蜜蜡 (zh) (mìlà), 蜂蠟 / 蜂蜡 (zh) (fēnglà)

• Classical Nahuatl: xīcohcuitlatl
• Crimean Tatar: balavuz
• Czech: včelí vosk m
• Danish: bivoks (da) c or n
• Dupaningan Agta: lilen
• Dutch: bijenwas (nl) m
• Esperanto: abelvakso
• Estonian: mesilasvaha (et)
• Finnish: mehiläisvaha (fi)
• French: cire d'abeille (fr) f
• Galician: cera de abella f, borra de abella f, buio (gl) m, morria f
• German: Bienenwachs (de) n
• Greek: μελισσόκηρος m (melissókiros), μελισσοκέρι (el) n (melissokéri)

  Ancient: κηρός m (kērós)

• Hawaiian: kūkaenalo
• Hebrew: דונג (he) m (dónag)
• Hindi: मोम (hi) m (mom), मधुमोम m (madhumom)
• Hungarian: méhviasz (hu)
• Icelandic: bývax n
• Indonesian: lilin lebah (id), malam (id)
• Ingrian: vaha
• Italian: cera d'api (it)
• Japanese: 蜜蝋 (ja) (みつろう, mitsurō), 封蝋 (ja) (ふうろう, fūrō)
• Kazakh: балауыз (balauyz)
• Khiamniungan Naga: yàp
• Khmer: ក្រមួនឃ្មុំ (krɑmuən khmum)
• Korean: 밀랍(蜜蠟) (ko) (millap), 봉랍(蜂蠟) (ko) (bongnap)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: şima (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: мом (mom)
• Latin: cēra f
• Latvian: vasks (lv) m
• Macedonian: пчелин восок m (pčelin vosok)
• Malay: lilin lebah
• Malayalam: മെഴുക് (meḻukŭ)
• Maori: ware (mi)
• Middle English: wax
• Navajo: tsísʼná bijeeh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bivoks (no) m

  Nynorsk: bivoks m

• Ottoman Turkish: بالمومی (balmumu)
• Persian: موم (fa) (mum)
• Polish: wosk pszczeli (pl) m
• Portuguese: cera de abelha f
• Punjabi: ਮੋਮ f (mom)
• Romanian: ceară de albine (ro) f
• Russian: пчели́ный воск m (pčelínyj vosk)
• Scottish Gaelic: cèir f, cèir-sheillean f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: восковаринa f, пчелињи восак m

  Latin: voskovarina (sh) f, pčelinji vosak m

• Sicilian: cira (scn), cira dî lapi
• Slovak: včelí vosk m
• Slovene: čebelji vosek m
• Spanish: cera de abeja f
• Sudovian: vaskan
• Swedish: bivax (sv) n
• Tagalog: pagkit
• Tajik: мум (mum)
• Tamil: மெழுகு (ta) (meḻuku)
• Tatar: балавыз (tt) (balawız)
• Thai: ขี้ผึ้ง (th) (kîi-pʉ̂ng)
• Tibetan: སྤྲ་ཚིལ (spra tshil), བུང་བའི་སྤྲ་ཚིལ (bung ba'i spra tshil), སྦྲང་བུའི་སྤྲ་ཚིལ (sbrang bu'i spra tshil)
• Tooro: ebisasara class 8
• Turkish: bal mumu (tr)
• Ukrainian: бджоли́ний ві́ск m (bdžolýnyj vísk)
• Urdu: موم m (mom)
• Venetan: zèra f
• Vietnamese: sáp ong
• Volapük: bienaväk (vo)
• Welsh: cŵyr gwenyn m

Verb

beeswax (third-person singular simple present beeswaxes, present participle beeswaxing, simple past and past participle beeswaxed)

1. (transitive) To polish with beeswax.