[Vocabulary] Love grows old and waxes cold

[Kreatur]

Hello everyone!
This is a passage from the traditional ballad "The water is wide":

Oh love be handsome and love be kind
Gay as a jewel when first it is new
But love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away like the morning dew

I cannot understand the meaning of the line "But love grows old and waxes cold". What do "waxes cold" mean? I haven't found any suitable definition in dictionaries for "wax". I also tried to find the word in the dictionary of Middle English but failed.

 

[Tarheel]

Hello everyone!
This is a passage from the traditional ballad "The water is wide":

I do not understand the meaning of the line "But love grows old and waxes cold". What does "waxes cold" mean? I haven't found any suitable definition in dictionaries for "wax". I also tried to find the word in the dictionary of Middle English but failed.

Look at the whole thing. Don't focus on individual words.

Ask yourself if anything lasts forever.

 

[SoothingDave]

This should help.

https://www.wikihow.com/Tell-Whether-the-Moon-Is-Waxing-or-Waning

 

[jutfrank]

I think it means something very basically like 'becomes' in precisely the same way that grows also means 'becomes'. Love becomes old and cold.

I don't think the 'moon' sense is very helpful because a waxing moon is getting bigger and brighter.