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  1. bumblebee love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of various large, hairy, social bees of the genus Bombus that nest underground.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A large hairy social bee of the family Apidœ, subfamily Socialiœ, and genus Bombus, species of which are found in most parts of the world. There are upward of 60 species in North America alone. Like other social bees, these have males, females, and drones, and live in larger or smaller communities in underground burrows, or beneath stones, sods, stumps, etc.; but they also use the nests of other animals, as mice or birds. See Bombus, and cut under Hymenoptera. Also called humblebee, and dialectally bumbee, bumble, bumbler, bombell, and bummle.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Any of several species of large bee in the genus Bombus.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) A large bee of the genus Bombus, sometimes called humblebee; -- so named from its sound.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. robust hairy social bee of temperate regions

Etymologies

  1. bumble2 + bee1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The causes of the recent major declines in bumblebee populations are not certain, but some factors are known to be important.”

    The Guardian: Biodiversity 100: actions for Europe

  • “Cause I get to ride around on a giant bumblebee, which is fantastic.”

    NPR: Michael Caine: A Life Large Enough For An Encore

  • “Aside from having people issues and a bit of a problem with alcohol no big deal, the bumblebee was a pretty chill dude.”

    Fictionaut: Helicopter Show

  • “He was still living down the grief he got when, after painting our house bright yellow and black, we became known as the bumblebee family.”

    Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Family Matters

  • “When I was a child, I heard a preacher say that the bumblebee is a miracle because scientists didn't know how such thin legs could support such a weight, so this was proof that God made the bumblebee!”

    Intelligent Design Criminology

  • “The Latin name for the bumblebee is the delicious sounding Bombus”

    WalesOnline - Home

  • “The plight of the bumblebee is a matter of great concern.”

    TreeHugger

  • “The smallest bats from Thailand are called bumblebee bats and are so small you could put one in a teaspoon.”

    Latest News

  • “I mean, it's one thing for her to hear "bumblebee" and fail to realize that it's pretty weird for the customer to want to replace the robot with a bug.”

    Wrong Bumblebee

  • “Passing in front of a wall now riddled with machine-gun bullets, they raced to the roof and piled into a "bumblebee" helicopter.”

    Newsweek: Inside The Invasion

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘bumblebee’.

Comments

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  • bilby Diction, please! Oct 30, 2008

  • oroboros "Bum Bill Bee". One of the characters in Geo. Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoon strip. Oct 29, 2008

  • reesetee Hence my hesitation. :-) Oct 28, 2008

  • chained_bear Removing bulk tags is still manual, I think. Oct 28, 2008

  • reesetee That's true! This one, though, is a specific hummingbird name.

    Still considering retagging that list--many of the words by themselves don't suggest birdy-ness. But I'll think about it. :-) Oct 28, 2008

  • chained_bear Well, you could just remove this one tag, if you wanted. :) Though I've seen enough really large bumblebees that I believe in some locales they do resemble birds... Oct 28, 2008

  • reesetee C_b's right. It's the adjective part of a bird name and is on my bird adjectives list for Bumblebee Hummingbird. However, it does make me rethink tagging all the words on that list as such....

    Bilby, you're a hairy-bodied insect? I had no idea. Oct 28, 2008

  • chained_bear It's on a bird-description list, and possibly was bulk-tagged. Oct 27, 2008

  • vanishedone Why is this tagged bird? Oct 27, 2008

  • bilby I'm concerned that I fit WeirdNet's definition. Oct 27, 2008

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‘bumblebee’ has been looked up 1793 times, loved by 7 people, added to 39 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.