honeycomb
Americannoun
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a structure of rows of hexagonal wax cells, formed by bees in their hive for the storage of honey, pollen, and their eggs.
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a piece of this containing honey and chewed as a sweet.
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anything whose appearance suggests such a structure, especially in containing many small units or holes.
The building was a honeycomb of offices and showrooms.
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the reticulum of a ruminant.
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Textiles.
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Also called waffle cloth. a fabric with an embossed surface woven in a pattern resembling a honeycomb.
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the characteristic weave of such a fabric.
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adjective
verb (used with object)
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to cause to be full of holes; pierce with many holes or cavities.
an old log honeycombed with ant burrows.
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to penetrate in all parts.
a city honeycombed with vice.
noun
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a waxy structure, constructed by bees in a hive, that consists of adjacent hexagonal cells in which honey is stored, eggs are laid, and larvae develop
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something resembling this in structure or appearance
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zoology another name for reticulum
verb
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to pierce or fill with holes, cavities, etc
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to permeate
honeycombed with spies
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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honeycombsimple
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honeycombssimple
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have honeycombedperfect
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has honeycombedperfect
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am honeycombingprogressive
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are honeycombingprogressive
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is honeycombingprogressive
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have been honeycombingperfect progressive
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has been honeycombingperfect progressive
Past
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honeycombedsimple
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had honeycombedperfect
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was honeycombingprogressive
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were honeycombingprogressive
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had been honeycombingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of honeycomb
before 1050; Middle English huny-comb, Old English hunigcamb. See honey, comb
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.
See Examples For:
That many are offered with highly Instagrammable toppings like fresh honeycomb has only added to their allure at a time when high inflation has led consumers to seek small indulgences.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
To see how these materials were gathered, researchers added trace amounts of graphite to ordinary honeycomb.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
When Apollo 11 landed on the moon, in a vehicle optimized for precisely that purpose, the legs, designed with a crushable honeycomb interior, were supposed to contract.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
I ate at Lutece and tried Chef Isabel Coss's stupendous honey semifreddo with comte and honeycomb.
From Salon ● May 24, 2025
From below it looked like a small white honeycomb.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
If a linebacker, perhaps, crashes into this kind of cushion, the impact will cause the honeycombs to collapse in a wave-like pattern.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 5, 2024
Peaches sprawl across the counter, next to honeycombs I would suck on during long, oppressive summers.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2022
Keepers inside a new biosecurity zone will not be able to move hives, bees or honeycombs until further notice.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2022
On this night there are handmade tablecloths by the artist Piero Golia next to jars of herbal anti-inflammatory salve created by Doctor Max, held together with beeswax made from the honeycombs on the grounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2022
“In those days, when people clapped their hands and asked God for food, pots of porridge and honeycombs came out of the earth.”
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Shadow of the Erdtree covers a significant stretch of land but feels much tighter, more thoroughly honeycombed through.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
That sense of exigency is honeycombed with grief.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2023
The valley above Hood River is honeycombed with farms that have also become destinations where one can handpick fruit, snack outside on picnic tables and bring the dog.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
The resulting porous crystal structure is so fully honeycombed with pockets that a chunk the size of a sugar cube can contain several football fields’ worth of internal surface area.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 17, 2021
He bent expertly between barbed wire strands and crossed a wide, soggy, overgrazed field, part of which was honeycombed with treacherous hummocks and leached-out grass clumps.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Weird subterranean winds whistle through caves honeycombing the limestone, and whoosh with an eerie trumpeting from gaping blowholes.
From Time Magazine Archive
There has been honeycombing and pinching and that sort of thing.
From Time Magazine Archive
The idea that the maze was regenerating itself, honeycombing its way under the earth again and providing a spacious new home for monsters...that didn’t make him happy.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
They saw shadowy caves along the way, and tunnels honeycombing the cliff every which way.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
General Hunt never could locate the place, and shot at short range above five hundred shells doing no damage, but honeycombing the surrounding ground.
From History of Kershaw's Brigade by Dickert, D. Augustus
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.
