Word.ws English Dictionary

putting the bee on

putting the bee on is the present participle and gerund of put the bee on.

Meaning of put the bee on

Verb

put the bee on (third-person singular simple present puts the bee on, present participle putting the bee on, simple past and past participle put the bee on)

  1. (US, slang, transitive) To finish off; to beat.
    • When Carmen quipped in, “Well, Mr. President somebody has to put the bee on them,” the General asserted, “It won't be me, never.”2001, Travis Beal Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia, Transaction, page 152
  2. (US, slang, transitive) To beg from; to borrow money from.
    • Sometimes I'd see a woman in the backyard, and, if she had a kind face I'd put the bee on her.1938, Clifford Robe Shaw, Henry Donald McKay, “et al.”, in Brothers in Crime, University of Chicago, page 157

Questions about putting the bee on

What is putting the bee on the present participle and gerund of?
Putting the bee on is the present participle and gerund of put the bee on.

Words near putting the bee on in the dictionary

  1. putting store by
  2. putting store in
  3. putting straight
  4. putting the arm on someone
  5. putting the bad mouth on
  6. putting the bee on
  7. putting the beggar on the gentleman
  8. putting the bite on
  9. putting the boot in
  10. putting the bottom rail on top
  11. putting the brakes on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting the bee on (page history and authors); put the bee on (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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