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BEE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("bee" is a kind of...):
hymenopter; hymenopteran; hymenopteron; hymenopterous insect (insects having two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor specialized for stinging or piercing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bee"):
drone (stingless male bee in a colony of social bees (especially honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen)
Apis mellifera; honeybee (social bee often domesticated for the honey it produces)
carpenter bee (large solitary bee that lays eggs in tunnels bored into wood or plant stems)
bumblebee; humblebee (robust hairy social bee of temperate regions)
cuckoo-bumblebee (a bee that is parasitic in the nests of bumblebees)
andrena; andrenid; mining bee (a bee that is a member of the genus Andrena)
alkali bee; Nomia melanderi (a common solitary bee important for pollinating alfalfa in the western United States)
leaf-cutter; leaf-cutter bee; leaf-cutting bee (bee that cuts rounded pieces from leaves and flowers to line its nest)
mason bee (any of numerous solitary bees that build nests of hardened mud and sand)
potter bee (solitary bee that builds nests of mud or pebbles cemented together and attached to a plant)
Holonyms ("bee" is a member of...):
Apoidea; superfamily Apoidea (bees)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A social gathering to carry out some communal task or to hold competitions
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("bee" is a kind of...):
social affair; social gathering (a gathering for the purpose of promoting fellowship)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bee"):
quilting bee (a gathering to make quilts)
cornhusking; husking bee (a social gathering for the purpose of husking corn)
Context examples:
I would fain at the moment have become bee or lizard, that I might have found fitting nutriment, permanent shelter here.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
By my hilt! cried the other, if you were to cross the narrow sea you would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And yet I live and keep bees upon the South Downs.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Manuka honey is produced by bees fed on the flowers of the New Zealand Manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium).
(Manuka Honey, NCI Thesaurus)
I know that everything was turning round, and the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my ear.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Someone chokes on an ice cube or gets stung by a bee.
(First Aid, NIH)
A supplement containing granules composed of pollen gathered by bees for food and honey.
(Bee Pollen, NCI Thesaurus)
The forecastle was like an angry hive of bees aroused by some marauder.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
A sweet and viscous fluid produced by honey bees from flower nectar and other plant fluids.
(Honey, NCI Thesaurus)
