Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A resinous substance collected from the buds of certain trees by bees and used as a cement or sealant in the construction of their hives.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A red, resinous, odorous substance having some resemblance to wax and smelling like storax.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Same as Bee glue, under
bee .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An aromatic glue-like substance produced by
honeybees from tree resin, waxes, and their own secretions, used in the construction of their hives.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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According to the Scottish nutritionist, propolis is necessary because "bees have no immune system".
Bee nonsense Ray Girvan 2004
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According to the Scottish nutritionist, propolis is necessary because "bees have no immune system".
Archive 2004-08-01 Ray Girvan 2004
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But small spaces, they'll actually fill with a material called propolis, which is a resin they gather from tress, because they seal it.
NPR Topics: News 2010
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Bees seal their hives with a sticky substance known as propolis or bee glue, which is collected from plants.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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Bees seal their hives with a sticky substance known as propolis or bee glue, which is collected from plants.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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Bees seal their hives with a sticky substance known as propolis or bee glue, which is collected from plants.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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Bees seal their hives with a sticky substance known as propolis or bee glue, which is collected from plants.
Earl Mindell’s New Herb Bible Earl Mindell 2008
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Others walk carefully all round the inside of the hive to see if there are any cracks in it; and if there are, they go off to the horse-chestnut trees, poplars, hollyhocks, or other plants which have sticky buds, and gather a kind of gum called "propolis," with which they cement the cracks and make them air-tight.
The Fairy-Land of Science Arabella B. Buckley 1884
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In this dilemma the ingenious little bees fetch the gummy "propolis" from the plant-buds and cement the intruder all over, thus embalming his body and preventing it from decaying.
The Fairy-Land of Science Arabella B. Buckley 1884
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In labeling and promotional materials, the company claimed bee byproducts such as propolis can cure or prevent diseases such as asthma, dermatitis, ulcers, cancer, kidney disease, bone fractures and insomnia.
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Propolis—a wonderful, sticky substance that bees make from tree resin and that has antibacterial qualities—is typically scraped out of hives by beekeepers because it is annoying and hard to get off their hands.
Is Beekeeping Wrong? Condé Nast 2023
fbharjo commented on the word propolis
bee's glue, not bee's wax
February 11, 2007