bee1
[bee]
- any hymenopterous insect of the superfamily Apoidea, including social and solitary species of several families, as the bumblebees, honeybees, etc.
- the common honeybee, Apis mellifera.
- a community social gathering in order to perform some task, engage in a contest, etc.: a sewing bee; a spelling bee; a husking bee.
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- have a bee in one's bonnet,
- to be obsessed with one idea.
- to have eccentric or fanciful ideas or schemes: Our aunt obviously has a bee in her bonnet, but we're very fond of her.
- put the bee on, Informal. to try to obtain money from, as for a loan or donation: My brother just put the bee on me for another $10.
- the bee's knees, Older Slang. (especially in the 1920s) a person or thing that is wonderful, great, or marvelous: Her new roadster is simply the bee's knees.
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Origin of bee1
before 1000; Middle English be(e); Old English bīo, bēo; cognate with Dutch bij, Old Saxon bī, bini, Old High German bīa, bini (German Biene), Old Norse bȳ; with other suffixes, Lithuanian bìtė, OPruss bitte, OCS bĭchela, Old Irish bech; *bhi- is a North European stem with the same distribution as wax1, apple; put the bee on probably an allusion to sting in sense “dupe, cheat”
bee2
[bee]
- Also called bee block. Nautical. a piece of hardwood, bolted to the side of a bowsprit, through which to reeve stays.
- Obsolete. a metal ring or bracelet.
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Origin of bee2
before 1050; Middle English beh ring, Old English bēag, bēah; cognate with Old Frisian bāg, Old Saxon, Middle Low German bōg, Old High German boug, Old Norse baugr, Sanskrit bhoga-; akin to bow1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bees
Contemporary Examples
The Bees Laline Paull (Ecco) This arresting debut novel is a daring dystopian story set in a beehive.
When he struck, Brown wrote, “The bees will begin to swarm.”
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated flees do it—thousands and thousands and thousands of times a day.
One Libyan intelligence source has likened it to a “swarm of bees” accepting a new queen bee.
Burt called on his beekeeper pal, who scooped up the bees from the fencepost with his bare hands, and dumped them into a hive.
Burt’s Bees Co-Founder Burt Shavitz on the Doc ‘Burt’s Buzz,’ and Losing MillionsMarlow Stern
September 11, 2013
Historical Examples
We are for you,—we trees and grass and birds and bees and flowers.
A Little Book of Profitable TalesEugene Field
They were densely crowded aft, and swarmed upon the poop-deck like bees.
The Uncommercial TravellerCharles Dickens
"We've got the bees working overtime for us," a scout called back.
Pee-wee HarrisPercy Keese Fitzhugh
Did they not, at their own church, cluster together like bees, when they saw me enter it?
Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
For her he had robbed the bees' nest that very day, and I had but partaken of the spoil.
Ranald Bannerman's BoyhoodGeorge MacDonald
bee1
- any hymenopterous insect of the superfamily Apoidea, which includes social forms such as the honeybee and solitary forms such as the carpenter beeSee also bumblebee, mason bee Related adjective: apian
- busy bee a person who is industrious or has many things to do
- have a bee in one's bonnet to be preoccupied or obsessed with an idea
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Word Origin
Old English bīo; related to Old Norse bӯ, Old High German bīa, Dutch bij, Swedish bi
bee2
- a social gathering for a specific purpose, as to carry out a communal task or hold competitionsquilting bee
- See spelling bee
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Word Origin
C18: perhaps from dialect bean neighbourly help, from Old English bēn boon
bee3
- nautical a small sheave with one cheek removed and the pulley and other cheek fastened flat to a boom or another spar, used for reeving outhauls or stays
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Word Origin
Old English bēag; related to Old High German boug ring, Old Norse bogi a bow
BEE
- Black Economic Empowerment: a government policy aimed at encouraging and supporting shareholding by black people
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bees
bee
n.
stinging insect, Old English beo "bee," from Proto-Germanic *bion (cf. Old Norse by, Old High German bia, Middle Dutch bie), possibly from PIE root *bhi- "quiver." Used metaphorically for "busy worker" since 1530s.
Sense of "meeting of neighbors to unite their labor for the benefit of one of their number," 1769, American English, probably is from comparison to the social activity of the insect; this was extended to other senses (e.g. spelling bee, first attested 1809; Raising-bee (1814) for building construction; also hanging bee "a lynching"). To have a bee in (one's) bonnet (1825), said of one who is harebrained or has an intense new notion or fancy, is said in Jamieson to be Scottish, perhaps from earlier expressions such as head full of bees (1510s), denoting mad mental activity.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with bees
bee
In addition to the idiom beginning with bee
- bee in one's bonnet
- been around
- been had
- been there, done that
- been to the wars
also see:
- birds and the bees
- busy as a beaver (bee)
- make a beeline for
- none of one's business (beeswax)
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.