Adjacent Words

Bee definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BEE, n. An insect of the genus Apis. [See Apis.] The species are numerous, of which the honey-bee is the most interesting to man. It has been cultivated from the earliest periods, for its wax and honey. It lives in swarms or societies, of fRomans 10,000 to 50,000 individuals. These swarms contain three classes of bees, the females or queen bees, the males or drones, and the neuters or working bees. Of the former, there is only one in each hive or swarm, whose sole office is to propagate the species. It is much larger than the other bees. The drones serve merely for impregnating the queen, after which they are destroyed by the neuters. These last are the laborers of the hive. They collect the honey, form the cells, and feed the other bees and the young. They are furnished with a proboscis by which they suck the honey from flowers, and a mouth by which they swallow it, and then convey it to the hive in their stomachs, where they disgorge it into the cells. The pollen of flowers settles on the hairs with which their body is covered, whence it is collected into pellets, by a brush on their second pair of legs,and deposited in a hollow in the third pair. It is called bee bread, and is the food of the larvae or young. The adult bees feed on honey. The wax was supposed to be formed from pollen by a digestive process, but it is now ascertained that it is formed from the honey by a similar process. The females and neuters have a barbed sting, attached to a bag of poison, which flows into the wound inflicted by the sting. When a hive is overstocked, a new colony is sent out under the direction of a queen bee. This is called swarming.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species
2: a social gathering to carry out some communal task or to hold competitions

Merriam Webster's

abbreviation bachelor of electrical engineering

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English b?o; akin to Old High German b?a bee, Old Irish bech, Lithuanian bitis Date: before 12th century 1. honeybee; broadly any of numerous hymenopterous insects (superfamily Apoidea) that differ from the related wasps especially in the heavier hairier body and in having sucking as well as chewing mouthparts, that feed on pollen and nectar, and that store both and often also honey 2. an eccentric notion ; fancy • beelike adjective II. noun Date: 14th century the letter b III. noun Etymology: perhaps from English dialect been help given by neighbors, from Middle English bene prayer, boon, from Old English b?n prayer — more at boon Date: 1769 a gathering of people for a specific purpose <a quilting bee>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 any four-winged insect of the superfamily Apoidea which collects nectar and pollen, produces wax and honey, and lives in large communities. 2 any insect of a similar type. 3 (usu. busy bee) a busy person. 4 esp. US a meeting for communal work or amusement. Phrases and idioms: bee-bread honey or pollen used as food by bees. bee dance a dance performed by worker bees to inform the colony of the location of food. bee-eater any bright-plumaged insect-eating bird of the family Meropidae with a long slender curved bill. a bee in one's bonnet an obsession. bee-keeper a keeper of bees. bee-keeping the occupation of keeping bees. bee-master a bee-keeper. bee orchid a kind of European orchid, Ophrys apifera, with bee-shaped flowers. the bee's knees sl. something outstandingly good (thinks he's the bee's knees). Etymology: OE beo f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bee Bee, p. p. of Be; -- used for been. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bee Bee (b[=e]), n. [AS. be['o]; akin to D. bij and bije, Icel. b?, Sw. & Dan. bi, OHG. pini, G. biene, and perh. Ir. beach, Lith. bitis, Skr. bha. [root]97.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) An insect of the order Hymenoptera, and family Apid[ae] (the honeybees), or family Andrenid[ae] (the solitary bees.) See Honeybee. Note: There are many genera and species. The common honeybee (Apis mellifica) lives in swarms, each of which has its own queen, its males or drones, and its very numerous workers, which are barren females. Besides the A. mellifica there are other species and varieties of honeybees, as the A. ligustica of Spain and Italy; the A. Indica of India; the A. fasciata of Egypt. The bumblebee is a species of Bombus. The tropical honeybees belong mostly to Melipoma and Trigona. 2. A neighborly gathering of people who engage in united labor for the benefit of an individual or family; as, a quilting bee; a husking bee; a raising bee. [U. S.] The cellar . . . was dug by a bee in a single day. --S. G. Goodrich. 3. pl. [Prob. fr. AS. be['a]h ring, fr. b?gan to bend. See 1st Bow.] (Naut.) Pieces of hard wood bolted to the sides of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through; -- called also bee blocks. Bee beetle (Zo["o]l.), a beetle (Trichodes apiarius) parasitic in beehives. Bee bird (Zo["o]l.), a bird that eats the honeybee, as the European flycatcher, and the American kingbird. Bee flower (Bot.), an orchidaceous plant of the genus Ophrys (O. apifera), whose flowers have some resemblance to bees, flies, and other insects. Bee fly (Zo["o]l.), a two winged fly of the family Bombyliid[ae]. Some species, in the larval state, are parasitic upon bees. Bee garden, a garden or inclosure to set beehives in; an apiary. --Mortimer. Bee glue, a soft, unctuous matter, with which bees cement the combs to the hives, and close up the cells; -- called also propolis. Bee hawk (Zo["o]l.), the honey buzzard. Bee killer (Zo["o]l.), a large two-winged fly of the family Asilid[ae] (esp. Trupanea apivora) which feeds upon the honeybee. See Robber fly. Bee louse (Zo["o]l.), a minute, wingless, dipterous insect (Braula c[ae]ca) parasitic on hive bees. Bee martin (Zo["o]l.), the kingbird (Tyrannus Carolinensis) which occasionally feeds on bees. Bee moth (Zo["o]l.), a moth (Galleria cereana) whose larv[ae] feed on honeycomb, occasioning great damage in beehives. Bee wolf (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the bee beetle. See Illust. of Bee beetle. To have a bee in the head or in the bonnet. (a) To be choleric. [Obs.] (b) To be restless or uneasy. --B. Jonson. (c) To be full of fancies; to be a little crazy. ``She's whiles crack-brained, and has a bee in her head.'' --Sir W. Scott.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bees) 1. A bee is an insect with a yellow-and-black striped body that makes a buzzing noise as it flies. Bees make honey, and can sting. N-COUNT 2. If you have a bee in your bonnet about something, you are so enthusiastic or worried about it that you keep mentioning it or thinking about it. He's got a bee in his bonnet about factory farming. PHRASE: V and bee inflect, oft PHR about n 3. A bee is a social event where people get together for a competition or to do something such as sew. (AM) That year I won first prize in the spelling bee... N-COUNT: usu n N

Easton's Bible Dictionary

First mentioned in Deut. 1:44. Swarms of bees, and the danger of their attacks, are mentioned in Ps. 118:12. Samson found a "swarm of bees" in the carcass of a lion he had slain (Judg. 14:8). Wild bees are described as laying up honey in woods and in clefts of rocks (Deut. 32:13; Ps. 81:16). In Isa. 7:18 the "fly" and the "bee" are personifications of the Egyptians and Assyrians, the inveterate enemies of Israel.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

be (debhorah; compare Arabic dabr, "a swarm of bees," also Arabic debbur, "a wasp," said to be a corruption of zunbur, "a wasp"; all are apparently from the Hebrew dabhar, "to speak," "arrange," "lead," "follow," or from Arabic dabara, "follow" (compare Arabic dabbara, "arrange"), though the connection in meaning is not apparent): Honey is mentioned many times in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, but the word "bee" occurs only four times, and only one of the four times in connection with honey in the story of Samson (Jud 14:8). Both wild and domesticated bees are found today in Palestine, but it is not clear that bees were kept in Bible times, although it would seem very probable. The frequently recurring phrase, "a land flowing with milk and honey," certainly suggests that the honey as well as the milk is a domestic product. The hives now in use are very primitive and wasteful as compared with hives that are made in Europe and America. Sometimes a large water jar is used. More frequently a cylinder about 3 or 4 ft. long and 6 inches in diameter is constructed of mulberry withes plaited together and plastered with mud or cow dung. A number of these cylinders are placed horizontally, being piled up together under some rude structure which serves as a protection from the direct rays of the sun. In the passage already cited it is related that Samson found a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion which he had killed on his previous visit. We are not told how much time had intervened, but it does not take long in the dry climate of Palestine for scavenging beasts and insects to strip the flesh from the bones and make the skeleton a possible home for a swarm of bees. The other three passages refer to the offensive power of bees. In De 1:44, in the speech of Moses he says, "The Amorites chased you, as bees do"; in Ps 118:12, the psalmist says, "They compassed me about like bees"; in Isa 7:18, the bee is the type of the chastisement that the Lord will bring from the land of Assyria.

Alfred Ely Day

Moby Thesaurus

boutade, bumblebee, conceit, cornhusking, crotchet, drone, fancy, freak, honeybee, hornet, humor, husking, idea, impulse, megrim, queen, queen bee, quilting bee, raising bee, vagary, wasp, whim, worker, yellow jacket