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Webster 1913 Edition

Bee

Bee

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

Bee

(bē)
,
Noun.
[AS.
beó
; akin to D.
bij
and
bije
, Icel.
bȳ
, Sw. & Dan.
bi
, OHG.
pini
, G.
biene
, and perh. Ir.
beach
, Lith.
bitis
, Skr.
bha
. √97.]
1.
(Zool.)
An insect of the order
Hymenoptera
, and family
Apidæ
(the honeybees), or family
Andrenidæ
(the solitary bees.) See
Honeybee
.
☞ 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.
S. G. Goodrich.
3.
pl.
[Prob. fr. AS.
beáh
ring, fr.
b[GREEK]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
(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
Bombyliidæ
. 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
(Zool.)
,
the honey buzzard.
–
Bee killer
(Zool.)
,
a large two-winged fly of the family
Asilidæ
(esp.
Trupanea apivora
) which feeds upon the honeybee. See
Robber fly
.
–
Bee louse
(Zool.)
,
a minute, wingless, dipterous insect (
Braula cæca
) parasitic on hive bees.
–
Bee martin
(Zool.)
,
the kingbird (
Tyrannus Carolinensis
) which occasionally feeds on bees.
–
Bee moth
(Zool.)
,
a moth (
Galleria cereana
) whose larvæ feed on honeycomb, occasioning great damage in beehives.
–
Bee wolf
(Zool.)
,
the larva of the bee beetle. See Illust. of
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.
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.

Webster 1828 Edition

Bee

BEE

,
Noun.
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 from 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.

Definition 2024

bêe

bêe

See also: bee, Bee, bée, beè, -bee, be'e, B.E.E., and béé

Sango

Noun

bêe

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter B/b.

See also

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