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.
Mostly dressed in variations of dark jackets and trousers, long scarves and open-neck shirts, he would often make a beeline for the media scrum outside the courthouse.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
After topping off a final glass, she made a beeline for the man sitting in the corner, quietly nursing his Guinness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
We reach Mons and the impressive Grand-Place, where several young people, recognising him from his Instagram account, make a beeline for him.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
And while his impartiality occasionally and inevitably falters, the missteps show how difficult, and ultimately useless, it is to ignore humanity’s wide-ranging gray areas to make a beeline for black or white.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
They would have rolled him in the dust and torn him there by his own steading if the swineherd had not sprung up and flung his leather down, making a beeline for the open.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
