English

Verb

(to) put the bee on

1. (slang, chiefly US) to finish off, to beat

   • 2001: When Carmen quipped in, “Well, Mr. President somebody has to put the bee on them,” the General asserted, “It won't be me, never.” — Travis Beal Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia (Transaction 2001, p. 152)

2. (slang, chiefly US) to beg; to borrow money from

   • 1938: Sometimes I'd see a woman in the backyard, and, if she had a kind face I'd put the bee on her. — Clifford Robe Shaw, Henry Donald McKay, et al., Brothers in Crime (University of Chicago 1938, p. 157)