Verb (American).—To overcome, surmount a difficulty, get the better of: by stratagem or nous (q.v.).
1876. New York Herald, 16 Mar. The trader at Fort Lincoln, fearing removal, Orville Grant's clerk at Standing Rock advised him to tell Grant, 'he can wax you.'
A lad (or man) of wax, subs. phr. (old).—A smart lad, a clever man.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet. A man of wax.
Close as wax, phr. (common).—As miserly, niggardly, or secretive as may be.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, i. 231. Then commenced a long and steady struggle, conducted with a Spartan dignity and self-command, and a countenance as close as wax.
1898. Gould, Landed at Last, v. Not much chance of drawing Sim Sharples when he's alone. He's as close as wax, and so is Sam Rogers.
Neat as wax. See Neat.
Waxed, adj. (tailors').—Well-known: e.g. So-and-so has been well waxed, i.e. We know all about him.
Way, subs. (colloquial).—Health,
condition, state, calling; e.g. in
a bad way = shaky in health,
pocket, or manner; only his
way = characteristic: cf.
'pretty Fanny's way.' Also
in phrases: 'To look both
(or nine) ways for Sundays' = to
squint; 'There are no two ways
about it' = the fact is as stated,
there's no mistake; out of the
way (thieves': see quot. 1819);
'to note the way the cat
jumps = to watch the course of
events; to go the way of
nature (or all flesh) = (l) to
be fond of belly cheer, and (2)
to die: see Hop the Twig; to
know one's way about = to be
well informed, experienced: see
Know; way to St. James'
(or Walsingham way) = the
Milky way (Fulke, Meteors,
1670, p. 81). 'The longest
way round is the shortest way
there' = a warning to the unwary
or ignorant that short cuts are
proverbial pitfalls: cf. 'Better go
about than fall into the ditch.'
1350. Tale of the Basyn [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iii. 45]. After a ere or two his wyfe he myt not pleese; Mycall of his lande lay to the preests ese Eche tawt hym euer amang how the katte did sneese.
1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., i. 3. 61. Men of his way should be most liberal.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe, ii. 2. I saw him even now going the way of all flesh, that is to say, towards the kitchen.
1698. Collier, Short View (1698), 211. Whenever you see a thorough Libertine, you may always swear he is in a rising way, and that the poet intends to make him a great man.
d. 1717. Parnell, Elegy to a Beauty. And all that's madly wild and oddly gay We call it only pretty Fanny's way.
1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, i. 1. Thinking that this would prove a busy day in the justicing way, I am come, Sir Jacob, to lend you a hand.
1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, i. 1. You must tell him to keep up his spirits; almost everybody is in the same way.
c. 1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 13. I heard that Don Rodrigo had gone the way of all flesh.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, ii. 194. Out of the way, a thief who knows that he is sought after by the traps on some information and consequently goes out of town, or otherwise conceals himself, is said by his pals to be out of the way for so and so, naming the particular offence he stands charged with. [See Wanted.]
