Definitions

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

  • noun A structure for housing domesticated honeybees.
  • noun A nest built by wild or feral bees.
  • noun A colony of bees living in such a structure or nest.
  • noun A place swarming with activity.
  • intransitive verb To collect into a hive.
  • intransitive verb To store (honey) in a hive.
  • intransitive verb To store up; accumulate.
  • intransitive verb To enter and occupy a beehive.
  • intransitive verb To live with many others in close association.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In oyster-culture, an artificial bed prepared for spat.
  • To gather into a hive; cause to enter a hive: as, to hive bees.
  • To stow, as in a place of deposit; lay up in store for future use or enjoyment.
  • To enter a hive; take to a hive, as bees; take shelter or lodgings together, in the manner of bees.
  • noun An artificial shelter or cell for the habitation of a swarm of honey-bees; a place in which bees harbor and lay up honey.
  • noun A bonnet or hat shaped like a beehive.
  • noun A swarm of bees, or the bees inhabiting a hive.
  • noun The abode of any animal.
  • noun Figuratively, a place swarming with busy occupants; a bustling company.

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

  • noun A box, basket, or other structure, for the reception and habitation of a swarm of honeybees.
  • noun The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.
  • noun A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the honeybee.
  • intransitive verb To take shelter or lodgings together; to reside in a collective body.
  • transitive verb To collect into a hive; to place in, or cause to enter, a hive.
  • transitive verb To store up in a hive, as honey; hence, to gather and accumulate for future need; to lay up in store.

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

  • noun A structure for housing a swarm of honeybees.
  • noun The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.
  • noun A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.
  • noun computing A section of the registry.
  • verb intransitive, entomology To enter or possess a hive.
  • verb intransitive To form a hive-like entity.
  • verb transitive To collect into a hive.
  • verb transitive To store in a hive or similarly.
  • verb intransitive To take shelter or lodgings together; to reside in a collective body.

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

  • noun a structure that provides a natural habitation for bees; as in a hollow tree
  • noun a teeming multitude
  • verb move together in a hive or as if in a hive
  • verb gather into a hive
  • noun a man-made receptacle that houses a swarm of bees
  • verb store, like bees

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English hȳf.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hyfe, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-Germanic *hūfiz (compare Dutch huif ‘beehive’, Danish dialect huv ‘ship's hull’), from Proto-Indo-European *kuHp- (“water vessel”) (compare Latin cūpa ‘tub, vat’, Ancient Greek κύπη (kyphē) ‘gap, hole’, κύπελλον (kýpellon) ‘beaker’, Sanskrit kū́pa ‘cave’), from *kew- (“to bend, curve”). The computing term was chosen as an in-joke relating to bees; see .

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hive.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I'll hive that money for them or bust. HF 26

    December 7, 2006

  • "In oyster-culture, an artificial bed prepared for spat." --CD&C

    October 25, 2011