beeswax

English

Etymology

Beeswax

From bee + s' + wax (= bees' wax)

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbizwæks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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.
2. (colloquial, mildly 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

• Armenian: մեղրամոմ (hy) (mełramom)
• Bashkir: балауыҙ (balawïð)
• Bulgarian: пчелен восък (pčelen vosǎk)
• Catalan: cera d'abelles f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蜜蠟 (zh), 蜜蜡 (zh) (mìlà)

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

  Ancient Greek: κηρός m (kērós)

• Hungarian: méhviasz (hu)
• Icelandic: bývax n
• Italian: cera d'api
• Japanese: 蜜蝋 (みつろう, mitsurō)
• Khmer: ក្រមួនឃ្មុំ (kror moun khmom)
• Korean: 밀랍 (ko) (millap)
• Latin: cera f

• Latvian: vasks (lv) m
• Malay: lilin lebah
• Navajo: tsísʼná bijeeh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bivoks (no) m, n

  Nynorsk: bivoks m, n

• Persian: موم‎‎ (fa) (mum)
• Polish: wosk pszczeli m inan
• Portuguese: cera de abelha f
• 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

• Slovak: včelí vosk m
• Spanish: cera de abeja f
• Sudovian: vaskan
• Swedish: bivax (sv) n
• Tagalog: pagkit
• Thai: ขี้ผึ้ง (kîi-pʉ̂ng)
• Tibetan: པྲ་ཚིལ (pra tshil)
• Turkish: bal mumu (tr)
• Vietnamese: sáp ong, lạp (vi)
• Volapük: bienaväk (vo)

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To polish with beeswax.