wax

Something completely dissimilar. It's one thing to babysit your friends' kids from time to time, but having your own children is a completely different ball of wax.

Something very different to, and often more difficult or complicated than, something else. It's one thing to babysit your friends' kids from time to time, but having your own children is a whole other ball of wax. I know you think you're some hotshot just because you worked in television once, but working on a film is a whole other ball of wax.

Said of something that is very unlikely to happen. That interview was a complete disaster, so I think I have about as much chance as a wax cat in hell of getting the job.

Something that is of no concern to another. This phrase is a less formal or serious version of "none of (one's) business." It's none of your beeswax why I left the party early the other night.

Someone or something that can be easily influenced or changed. You need to set some boundaries if you want them to stop treating you like a nose of wax! He is not just a nose of wax for you to bend to your whims.

On a phonograph record. "Wax" is a reference to the long-obsolete practice of making recordings on wax cylinders. I've always been told music sounds better on wax, but I honestly can't hear one bit of difference. More and more musicians are choosing to release their albums on wax alongside digital formats.

Everything; the entirety of something. There's nothing more to tell you. That's the whole ball of wax.

To alternatingly increase (wax) and decrease (wane). My fortune has waxed and waned over the years, but I live simply anyway, and it has never affected me much. Voter turnout waxes and wanes depending on which positions are up for election.

To speak or write in an angry, indignant, or wrathful manner. Fans of the singer have been waxing angry online about the announcement that her new album would be pulled from store shelves due to the recent controversy. You can wax angry all you like, Tom, but it's not going to change the board's decision.

To speak or write (about something) with particularly eloquent language, especially to an ostentatious or performative degree. After his fourth gin and tonic, my father stood up and began waxing eloquent about the importance of family. She never hesitates to wax eloquent about all sorts of social injustices in the world.

To speak about something enthusiastically, especially by employing elegant language; to rhapsodize. It was a nice feeling when Dana waxed lyrical about the dinner I made, describing it as "sublimely scrumptious." If you're going to be a salesman, you're going to have to learn how to wax lyrical about the most mundane products to make them sound like must-haves.

To speak about some topic in a poetic manner, often exaggeratedly or verbosely so. The entertainer has a habit of waxing poetic during interviews, which delights some people and infuriates others. Dan always loves to wax poetic about his vacation to Peru.

To speak or write in an angry, indignant, or wrathful manner. "Wroth" is an otherwise archaic term meaning "wrathful; angry or irate." Fans of the singer have been waxing wroth online about the announcement that her new album would be pulled from store shelves due to the recent controversy. You can wax wroth all you like, Tom, but it's not going to change the board's decision.

Having had hair partially or totally removed by waxing. I compete in bodybuilding competitions, so I get my whole body waxed in preparation for it. One of the things I hate the most about bikini season is having to get waxed down in my nether regions.

Fig. to increase and then decrease, as the phases of the moon. As the moon waxes and wanes, so does the height of the tide change. Voter sentiment about the tax proposal waxes and wanes with each passing day.

Fig. to speak in anger and with indignity. Seeing the damage done by the careless children caused the preacher to wax wroth at their parents.

Fig. to speak with eloquence. Perry never passed up a chance to wax eloquent at a banquet.

Fig. to speak poetically. I hope you will pardon me if I wax poetic for a moment when I say that your lovely hands drift across the piano keys like swans on a lake.

the whole thing; the whole matter or affair; the entire affair or organization. John is not a good manager. Instead of delegating jobs to others, he runs the whole shooting match himself. There's not a hard worker in that whole shooting match. I will be glad to be finished with this project. I want to be done with the whole ball of wax. I am tired of this job. I am fed up with the whole ball of wax.

Increase and decrease, as in size, number, strength, or intensity, as in Enrollments in these programs wax and wane from year to year. This expression alludes to the phases of the moon, with its periodic changes in size. It was first recorded in the 1300s.

Also, the whole enchilada or shooting match or shebang . Everything, all the elements, the entire affair. For example, The union demanded higher wages, a pension plan, job security-the whole ball of wax, or The contract includes paperback rights, film rights, electronic media-the whole enchilada, or She lost her job, her pension, her health-care coverage, the whole shooting match. Not all the allusions in these slangy terms are clear. Ball of wax may refer to a 17th-century English legal practice whereby land was divided among heirs by covering scraps of paper representing portions of land with wax, rolling each into a ball, and drawing the balls from a hat. An enchilada combines several foods inside a tortilla; a shooting match denotes a shooting competition; and a shebang is a rude hut or shelter. The first two of these slangy terms date from the second half of the 1900s, the last two from the late 1800s. For synonyms, see whole kit and caboodle; whole megillah.

If you talk about the whole ball of wax, you mean the whole of something, including everything connected with it. Perry wanted it all the fame, the money, the glamour — the whole ball of wax. Note: The usual British expression is the whole caboodle.

If you wax lyrical about a subject, you talk about it in an enthusiastic way. He waxed lyrical about the skills and commitment of his employees.

Informal In the medium of phonograph recordings.

An entirely changed situation. The first, an Americanism originating about 1970, applied the idea of a new sport with different rules to changed circumstances in almost any situation: for example, “If this were to happen, some official of our government would no doubt announce that we were in a ‘whole new ballgame,’ which would mean that none of the policies or promises made in the past were binding any longer” (New Yorker, 1971). It is also put as a whole other ball game. The second phrase, which has exactly the same meaning, may, it has been suggested, come from a seventeenth-century English legal practice whereby land was divided among several heirs. Wax was used to cover small pieces of paper on which portions of land were identified; each was rolled into a ball, and the balls were drawn from a hat by the heirs in order of precedence (the eldest first, the youngest last). Whether or not this was the source, “the whole ball of wax” today also means all the elements of a plan, situation, or action, as well as all related elements. Thus one might say, “He sold her his house, his boat, his car—the whole ball of wax.”

As much chance as a wax cat in hell: a New England expression meaning no chance at all.