beeswax

noun

1. wax¹(def 1).

verb (used with object)

2. to rub or treat with beeswax.

noun

1. 1. a yellowish or dark brown wax secreted by honeybees for constructing honeycombs
   2. this wax after refining, purifying, etc, used in polishes, ointments, and for modelling

verb

2. (tr) to polish with such wax

n.

1670s, from genitive of bee + wax. As a jocular alteration of business (usually in an injunction to someone to mind his own) attested from 1934 in Lower East Side slang as reproduced in Henry Roth’s “Call It Sleep.”