solitary bee


noun
  1. any of numerous bees, as the leaf-cutting bees, that do not live in a community.

Origin of solitary bee

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Words Nearby solitary bee

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use solitary bee in a sentence

  • Buzzing around me, as if seeking some companionship on that lonely bluff, was a solitary bee.

    The Awakening of the Desert | Julius C. Birge
  • He once saw with delight "a solitary bee nipping a leaf round till it exactly fitted the front of a hole."

    Robert Browning | C. H. Herford
  • Their eyes fell, at the same moment, upon one solitary bee that was standing upon the inside of the flower-pot.

    Rollo's Experiments | Jacob Abbott
  • One kind of solitary bee, for example, builds in empty snail-shells, and another in small hollows like keyholes.

  • The cells are provisioned like those of any other solitary bee with pollen, etc., and the egg is laid upon it.

    Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants | Edward Saunders