| 释义 |
waxwork|ˈwækswɜːk|
1. Work executed in wax.
1723Blackmore Alfred ii. 67 Th' industrious Tenants of the narrow Hive..fetch Home Spoils their Wax-works to renew.
2. a. esp. Modelling in wax; an object or objects modelled in wax; usually applied to life-size effigies of persons, with head, hands, and bust of wax, coloured and clothed to look like life.
1697Post Boy 20–23 Nov. 2/2 At the Golden Salmon in St. Martins, near Aldersgate, is to be seen, in Wax-work, about Fifty Figures, all big as the Life. 1701in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. VII. 103 Y⊇ Procession which began before 7 with 12 Pageants of History in large Wax Work. a1704T. Brown Walk Lond. & Westm. Wks. 1719 III. 316 Here stood Edward III as they told us, which was a broken Piece of Waxwork, a batter'd Head, and a Straw-stuff'd Body. 1774Wesley Jrnl. 24 Jan., I was desired by Mrs. Wright, of New-York, to let her take my effigy in wax-work. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xxvii, I've seen wax-work quite like life. 1865― Mut. Fr. i. ix, ‘It's no good my being kept here like Wax-Work, is it now?’ ‘People have to pay to see Wax-Work, my dear,’ returned her husband.
fig.1858Gladstone Homer III. 512 Homer gives us figures that breathe and move. Virgil usually treats us to waxwork.
b. pl.
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. II. 267 Of Mummies, Wax-Works, &c. 1896S. Butler Life & Lett. Dr. S. Butler I. 228 This can only be surpassed..by Dr. Arnold's taking the terracotta figures of the Varese chapels for waxworks.
3. An exhibition of wax figures representing celebrated or notorious characters; also, the place of exhibition. Now pl.
1763Boswell Jrnl. 4 July in London Jrnl. (1950) 289, I went and saw Mrs. Salmon's famous wax-work in Fleet Street. 1773Duchess of Northumberland Diary (1926) 207 The Tower, the Venetian Lady, Westminster Abbey, Salmon's Waxworks. 1796T. Morton Way to get Married v. i, You must show me the sights—The lions at the Tower,..the parliament-house, and the wax-work. 1806J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life vii. §67 Escorting two or three coaches full of country-cousins..to the Lions, the Wax-work, the Monument, &c. 1831Cruchley's Pict. Lond. 112 Wax Works. Fleet Street. 1837Thackeray Ravenswing ii, He looked like a figure out of a wax-work. 1895Sir H. Irving in Daily News 17 June 6/4 ‘You didn't go [to the Lyceum]! Why not?’ ‘Well, sir, you see there's the missus, and she preferred the wax-works.’
4. U.S. The climbing bitter-sweet, Celastrus scandens; so called from the waxy scarlet aril of the fruit.
1818W. P. C. Barton Compendium Floræ Philadelphicæ I. 128 Wax Work. A climbing plant frequently reaching the tops of trees. 1856A. Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 81 Celastrus scandens (Wax-work. Climbing Bitter-sweet).
5. attrib. and Comb., as waxwork-figure, waxwork-show; waxwork-man, the proprietor of a waxworks.
1827Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 131/1 There is a wax-work Pope, and a wax-work Court of Rome. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz, Gt. Winglebury Duel, Whenever a juggler, or wax⁓work man, or concert-giver, takes Great Winglebury in his circuit. 1840― Old C. Shop xxvii, Mrs. Jarley's wax-work show. Ibid. xxix, She slept..in the room where the waxwork figures were. 1889R. Buchanan in Contemp. Rev. Dec. 912 The highway is strewn with the corpses of dead poets who never lived,..with loud inglorious Cowleys, with waxwork Popes. 1898Watts-Dunton Aylwin viii. i, The House of Commons has become a bear-garden, and t'other House a wax-work show. |