honeycomb
Americannoun
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honeycombs
plural
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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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honeycombs,
present (3rd person singular)
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honeycombed,
past participle, past
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honeycombing
present participle
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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
-
have been honeycombingperfect progressive
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has been honeycombingperfect progressive
Past
-
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
Just as magnetic interactions can be frustrated in certain lattice structures, these dimers can also face restrictions in geometries such as triangular lattices or honeycomb networks.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 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
“The bristles would allow you to gently brush into all the little honeycomb sections or little divots,” Beitchman explained.
From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2025
Genie had seen that honeycomb thing in a bunch of movies, but never knew the name.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
Instead, they make padding out of a network of hexagonal towers, or "plate lattices," that look a bit like honeycombs.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 5, 2024
She never kicked up her feet and enjoyed honeycombs on a Saturday afternoon.
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
The inside of the honey house was one big room filled with strange honey-making machines—big tanks, gas burners, troughs, levers, white boxes, and racks piled with waxy honeycombs.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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
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
It is a world that seems by its very nature to be pastoral and calm but which is honeycombed with problems, including climate change, competition from cultured honeybees, shrinking habitat and pesticides.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
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
There has been honeycombing and pinching and that sort of thing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Weird subterranean winds whistle through caves honeycombing the limestone, and whoosh with an eerie trumpeting from gaping blowholes.
From Time Magazine Archive
They saw shadowy caves along the way, and tunnels honeycombing the cliff every which way.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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 show no motive in their complicated domes, their honeycombing, and their ingenious conventional forms; but cover equally textile fabrics or stucco ceilings without suggesting any idea, religious or symbolical.
From Needlework As Art by Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess Alford
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.
