Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or having the characteristics of bees.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to bees.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Belonging to bees.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relating to bees; beely.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or having the characteristics of bees

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin apis, bee.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

19th Century, from Latin apiānus, from apis ("bee").

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Examples

  • Because the bees do not speak in plain language, but in cryptic phrases that appear nonsensical to those untrained in the apian way.

    The light that draws the flower James Greer 2011

  • Football fans will perhaps be unsurprised to learn that the vuvuzela, whose apian drone soundtracked yet another summer of hurt, has blared its way into the dictionary's pages.

    Climate change and the vuvuzela leave mark on Oxford Dictionary of English 2010

  • Plus, I refuse to use the slave labor products of my captive apian-friends.

    Bound but not Gagged Don Lewis 2008

  • If Bee runs, look for apian puns in the press and on this blog.

    Archive 2006-11-01 2006

  • It's maybe three hundred feet down the mountain, so the whole thing is laid out like apian.

    Running Blind Child, Lee 2000

  • For the human shell is not merely geometrical and architectural, like those of apian or beaverish communities; it holds and expresses all those differences by which we are exalted above the bee or the beaver.

    Civics: as Applied Sociology Patrick Geddes 1893

  • These are produced by the bees on the outside of the cluster performing what can best be described as highly co-ordinated apian moonies.

    The Guardian World News 2010

  • I actually had another card ( apian rushmore card ..similar age but a better card) ...

    Kubuntu Forums 2010

  • The boxes can be variously configured, whether into a two-story wildlife B&B or a high-rise hotel, to suit your apian lodgers 'every need.

    Fast Company 2010

  • BBC talking about the apian health crisis and the perilous honey business.

    Emdashes 2009

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