Wax

Wax

Waxes are a class of chemical compounds that are plastic (malleable) near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C (113 °F) to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents. All waxes are organic compounds, both synthetic and naturally occurring.

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Famous quotes containing the word wax:

    A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
    Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)

    Lucretius
    Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
    smiling carves dreams, bright cells
    Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.
    Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    Fowls in the frith,
    Fishes in the flood,
    And I must wax wod:
    Much sorrow I walk with
    For best of bone and blood.
    —Unknown. Fowls in the Frith. . .

    Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds. Oxford University Press.