• Beehive

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ˈbiːhaɪv/

    Origin

    From Middle English beehyve, equivalent to bee + hive.

    Full definition of beehive

    Noun

    beehive

    (plural beehives)
    1. An enclosed structure in which some species of honey bees (genus Apis) live and raise their young.
    2. A man-made structure in which bees are kept for their honey.
    3. (figuratively)  Any place full of activity, or in which people are very busy.
    4. A women's hairstyle, popular in the 1960s, in which long hair is styled into a hive-shaped form on top of the head and usually held in place with lacquer. Also, a style of hat.
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter Foreword, A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, ....
    5. A type of anti-personnel ammunition round containing flechettes, and characterised by the buzzing sound made as they fly through the air.
      • 2005, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home (Simon & Schuster 2005, page 179)By the time it was over, Stone had been blown thirty feet through the air by a beehive round as he was running across a field, knocked out by the concussion of the blast.

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