waxed end

• wax end, wax-end

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waxed end (plural waxed ends)

1. (shoemaking) A thread of various filaments, usually pointed with a bristle and covered with shoemaker's wax, used in sewing leather, as for making or repairing footwears.
   • 1892, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, translated by Adolphus Norraikow, Life Is Worth Living:

     Simeon took a rough waxed-end, and placing it around his finger proceeded to attach a bristle to it. "You see," said Simeon, "it is not such a very difficult thing to do. You have only to pay attention."

   • 1924, George Washington Ogden, s:The Trail Rider, Chapter 1:

     Uncle Boley worked at the seam until he had used up the thread in the leather, then took the extra waxed-end out of his mouth and put the boot aside. He took up one of the crippled shoes, turned it, examined it, as if he had come across some curiosity in the shoemaker's art.

   • 1939, Frank Richards, The Magnet: Loder Looks for Trouble:

     He had a boot in his left hand, and, in his right, what cobblers call a wax end. He seemed very seriously at work on that boot.

• “wax”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.