From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwax and wanewax and waneALCHANGE/BECOME DIFFERENTto increase and decrease over time Interest in the show has waxed and waned. → wax
Examples from the Corpus
wax and wane• Over the years, there have been fundamental shifts in policy and strategy as attitudes toward the rural poor wax and wane.• Controversy about essential hypertension has waxed and waned for a century, and what is orthodox today may change with time.• Historical Romances continued to appear throughout the century, waxing and waning in numbers and popularity as public taste dictated.• Is it present constantly, does the sensation wax and wane, or does it come in acute attacks?• Although the Alsops' fortunes waxed and waned through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain family characteristics remained distinct. 