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Bee   /bi/   Listen
noun
Bee  n.  
1.
(Zool.) An insect of the order Hymenoptera, and family Apidae (the honeybees), or family Andrenidae (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 Apis mellifica there are other species and varieties of honeybees, as the Apis ligustica of Spain and Italy; the Apis Indica of India; the Apis 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."
3.
pl. (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 (Zool.), a beetle (Trichodes apiarius) parasitic in beehives.
Bee bird (Zool.), a bird that eats the honeybee, as the European flycatcher, and the American kingbird.
Bee flower (Bot.), an orchidaceous plant of the genus Ophrys (Ophrys apifera), whose flowers have some resemblance to bees, flies, and other insects.
Bee fly (Zool.), a two winged fly of the family Bombyliidae. Some species, in the larval state, are parasitic upon bees.
Bee garden, a garden or inclosure to set beehives in; an apiary.
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 (Zool.), the honey buzzard.
Bee killer (Zool.), a large two-winged fly of the family Asilidae (esp. Trupanea apivora) which feeds upon the honeybee. See Robber fly.
Bee louse (Zool.), a minute, wingless, dipterous insect (Braula caeca) parasitic on hive bees.
Bee martin (Zool.), the kingbird (Tyrannus Carolinensis) which occasionally feeds on bees.
Bee moth (Zool.), a moth (Galleria cereana) whose larvae feed on honeycomb, occasioning great damage in beehives.
Bee wolf (Zool.), the larva of the bee beetle.
To have a bee in the head or To have a bee in the bonnet.
(a)
To be choleric. (Obs.)
(b)
To be restless or uneasy.
(c)
To be full of fancies; to be a little crazy. "She's whiles crack-brained, and has a bee in her head."


verb
Bee  v.  P. p. of Be; used for been. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bee" Quotes from Famous Books



... into that mighty forest where no human sound was heard and which was inhabited by deer and bears and birds, and which was adorned with trees that were bright and green, and which echoed with the hum of the black-bee and the notes of winged warblers. As he was proceeding along, he beheld that beautiful lake which looked as if it had been made by the celestial artificer himself. And it was adorned with flowers of a golden ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 2 • Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... the warm silence, departed lingeringly. Belated insects still buzzed in the wayside foliage. A bee, overtaken in his busy pilfering by the obliterating dusk, hung on a nodding mountain flower, unfearful above the canon's emptiness. An occasional bird ventured a boldly questioning note that lingered unfinished in the silence ...
— Overland Red - A Romance of the Moonstone Canon Trail • Henry Herbert Knibbs
... that "never in the whole course of his professional experience—never from the first moment of his applying himself to the study and practice of the law—had he approached a case with such a heavy sense of respon-see-bee-lee-ty imposed upon him—a respon-see-bee-lee-ty he could never have supported were he not," and so forth. Again, a wonderfully ridiculous effect was imparted by the Reader to his mere contrasts of manner when, at one moment, in the bland and melancholy ...
— Charles Dickens as a Reader • Charles Kent
... a little music; then I waste a deal of time in feeding and cleaning a large cageful of canary-birds, of which, as the pleasure is mine, I do not choose to give the rather disgustful trouble to any one else; strolling round the garden, watching my bee-hives, which are full of honey just now; every chink and cranny of the day between all this desultoriness, is filled with "the baby"; and study, of every sort (but that most prodigious study of any sort, i.e., "the baby,") seems further ...
— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble
... the hushing of the linnet in her nest, With her young beneath her wings, and the sunset on her breast: While hid among the flowers, where the dreamy bee is flitting, Singing unto its own glad heart, the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, No. - 537, March 10, 1832 • Various


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