beeline
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of beeline
Explanation
A beeline is the swiftest, most direct route between two points. If you are shopping at the mall on a weekend afternoon and you see an empty parking space, you should make a beeline for it or risk circling the lot for hours. The word beeline combines the words bee and line. The idea behind the word is the belief that a bee, when it is done feeding, will take the shortest path back to its hive without delay or meandering. So beeline not only has the sense of being a direct route, but also that there is some haste behind the action. If you make a beeline for the chocolate at a party, you went straight to the dessert table without eating dinner first.
Vocabulary lists containing beeline
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But Le Tout Paris has been making a beeline for the bridge, and even the sun, which spent much of August here wrapped in clouds, has reappeared.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026
In the first, Portland All-Star Deni Avdija made a beeline to the rim.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026
González made a beeline to his wife of five decades, and for the first time all night they did what they had come to do: They danced.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026
Then she makes a beeline for a gaggle of giggling children and expectant women, most in flowing black cloaks.
From BBC • Feb. 1, 2026
It made a beeline for the Monte Carlo Casino, crashing straight through its walls and cracking it wide open.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
