beeline

American

[bee-lahyn] / ˈbiˌlaɪn /

noun

a direct route traveled quickly (usually in the phrasemake a beeline for ).

The minute he came home he made a beeline for the refrigerator.

beeline British

/ ˈbiːˌlaɪn /

noun

the most direct route between two places (esp in the phrase make a beeline for )

"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

beeline Idioms

see make a beeline for.

Etymology

Origin of beeline

An Americanism dating back to 1820–30; bee ¹ + line ¹

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.

No wonder so many members of the coaching staff and a number of Gordon's team-mates made a beeline for him at full-time.

From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026

Cunnah "made a beeline" for Manchester, hired a car and drove to Barnsley, where Hanna lives.

From BBC • Feb. 17, 2026

Five people so far had either said no or physically turned away when they saw Suggs and his iPhone-wielding companion making a beeline toward them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 14, 2025

The drone team turned its attention to the third person, who was stumbling through the brush and making a beeline for the Mexican border.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 15, 2025

Ivy made a beeline out the door and sat in her first-period class by herself while everyone else chattered in the hallway for five minutes.

From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023