bee-hive

Noun

beehive (plural beehives)

1. Such a home prepared by the bees themselves, in which some species of honey bees live and raise their young.

   Synonyms:

   hive

2. A man-made structure in which honey bees are kept so that humans can harvest their honey.
   • The key-hole was still their port of egress and regress, and it resembled the aperture of a bee-hive, on a sunny day in June.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 306

   Synonyms:

   hive, apiary, skep

3. (figuratively) Any place full of activity, or in which people are very busy.

   Synonyms:

   hive of activity

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.

   Synonyms:

   B-52

5. A particular style of hat.
   • 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,[…].1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
6. A type of anti-personnel ammunition round containing flechettes, and characterised by the buzzing sound made as they fly through the air.
   • 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.2004, Martin Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 179

See all 13 meanings of beehive