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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

Bee

Bee

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

English

Noun

Bee ‎(plural Bees)

  1. (soccer) someone connected with Barnet Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.

bee

bee

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

English

Noun

bee ‎(plural bees)

  1. A flying insect, of the superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies and for collecting pollen and (in some species) producing wax and honey.
    • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
      His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge […].
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.12:
      An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12:
      Can there be a more formall, and better ordered policie, divided into so severall charges and offices, more constantly entertained, and better maintained, than that of Bees?
    • 2012, ‘Subtle poison’, The Economist, 31 March:
      Bees pollinate many of the world’s crops—a service estimated to be worth $15 billion a year in America alone.
Derived terms
Synonyms
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

Possibly from dialectal English bene, been, bean ‎(“help given by neighbours”), from Middle English been, bene ‎(“neighbourly help, prayer, petition, request, extra service given by a tenant to his lord”),[1][2] from Old English bēn ‎(“prayer, request, petition, favour, compulsory service”) from Proto-Germanic *bōniz ‎(“prayer, request, supplication”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- ‎(“to say, speak”). Cognate with Danish bøn ‎(“prayer”), Dutch ban ‎(“curse”), German Bann ‎(“ban”). More at ban.

Noun

bee ‎(plural bees)

  1. A contest, especially for spelling; see spelling bee.
    geography bee
  2. A gathering for a specific purpose, e.g. a sewing bee or a quilting bee.
    • S. G. Goodrich
      The cellar […] was dug by a bee in a single day.
    • 2011, Tim Blanning, "The reinvention of the night", Times Literary Supplement, 21 Sep 2011:
      Particularly resistant, for example, in many parts of northern Europe was the “spinning bee”, a nocturnal gathering of women to exchange gossip, stories, refreshment and – crucially – light and heat, as they spun wool or flax, knitted or sewed.
Translations

Etymology 3

(Northern development of) Old English bēah.

Noun

bee ‎(plural bees)

  1. (obsolete) A ring or torque; a bracelet.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VII:
      And Kynge Arthure gaff hir a ryche bye of golde; and so she departed.
    • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin 2005, page 16:
      ...restoring unto the world much gold richly adorning his Sword, two hundred Rubies, many hundred Imperial Coynes, three hundred golden Bees, the bones and horseshoe of his horse enterred with him...

Etymology 4

Variant spellings.

Verb

bee

  1. Obsolete spelling of be
    • 1604 Reverend Cawdrey Table Aleph
      held that a ‘Nicholaitan is an heretike, like Nicholas, who held that wiues should bee common to all alike.’
  2. (obsolete) past participle of be; been
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Etymology 5

From Middle English, from Old English be, from Latin be ‎(the name of the letter B).

Noun

bee ‎(plural bees)

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

Etymology 6

Probably from Old English bēah ‎(“ring”). Compare bow.

Noun

bee ‎(plural bees)

  1. (nautical, chiefly plural) Any of the pieces of hard wood bolted to the sides of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through.
Synonyms
  • bee block

References

  1. ↑ http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/bee
  2. ↑ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bee%5B3%5D

Aukan

Etymology

From English belly.

Noun

bee

  1. belly, stomach
  2. uterus, womb
  3. pregnancy
  4. lineage, family line

References

Estonian

Noun

bee ‎(genitive [please provide], partitive [please provide])

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

Finnish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbeː/
  • Rhymes: -eː

Noun

bee

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

Declension

Inflection of bee (Kotus type 18/maa, no gradation)
nominative bee beet
genitive been beiden
beitten
partitive beetä beitä
illative beehen beihin
singular plural
nominative bee beet
accusative nom. bee beet
gen. been
genitive been beiden
beitten
partitive beetä beitä
inessive beessä beissä
elative beestä beistä
illative beehen beihin
adessive beellä beillä
ablative beeltä beiltä
allative beelle beille
essive beenä beinä
translative beeksi beiksi
instructive — bein
abessive beettä beittä
comitative — beineen

Usage notes

  • Speakers often use the corresponding forms of b-kirjain ("letter B, letter b") instead of inflecting this word, especially in plural.

Synonyms

Latin

Interjection

bee!

  1. baa (sound of a sheep)

References

Mandinka

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /beː/

Noun

bee

  1. (anatomy) ****

Manx

Noun

bee m ‎(genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

  1. food
  2. provisions
  3. nourishment
  4. diet

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
bee vee mee
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Verb

bee

  1. future tense of ve (to be)
  2. imperative of ve

Navajo

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [beː]

Postposition

bee

  1. with, by means of, by means of it

Inflection

Old Irish

Verb

bee

  1. second-person singular present subjunctive absolute of at·tá

Tetum

bee

Etymology

From Proto-Central Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

Alternative forms

Noun

bee

  1. water (clear liquid H₂O)

Võro

Noun

bee ‎(genitive [please provide], partitive [please provide])

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

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Etymology

A bee

From Middle English bee, from Old English bēo, from Proto-Germanic *bijō (compare West Frisian and Dutch bij, Upper German Beie, Danish and Swedish bi), from Proto-Indo-European *bʱi- (compare Old Irish bech ‎(“bee”), Welsh bydaf ‎(“beehive”), Latin fūcus ‎(“drone”), Latvian bite ‎(“bee”), Russian пчела́ ‎(pčelá, “bee”)).

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) enPR: bē, IPA(key): /biː/
  • Rhymes: -iː
  • Homophones: b, be, Bea

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