beehive

beehive — noun

1. a box or similar structure that people use to keep bees and collect honey

1.nounC1
Definition

a box or similar structure that people use to keep bees and collect honey

Example

At sunrise, Omar checked each beehive behind the apple trees.

check each beehive

The children watched bees return to the beehive with yellow legs.

Common collocations
  • wooden beehive
  • open a beehive
  • beehive lid
  • move a beehive
  • collect honey from a beehive
Synonyms
  • hive

    broader and can refer to the bees' home in general, not only a managed box

  • colony box

    a more technical term used in beekeeping

  • skep

    an old-fashioned basket-style type of beehive

Grammar Patterns

in a beehive

from a beehive

Usage Note

Usually refers to a built container used by people who keep bees. A place with many of them is more often called an apiary.

Common Mistakes

We found a beehive of wasps under the roof.
We found a wasp nest under the roof.
beehive normally refers to bees, not wasps.

2. a tall rounded hairstyle, traditionally worn by women, with the hair built up ab

2.nounC2
Definition

a tall rounded hairstyle, traditionally worn by women, with the hair built up above the head

Example

For the school show, Mia wore her hair in a beehive.

wear your hair in a beehive

Old photos show Grandma with a neat beehive and pearl earrings.

Common collocations
  • wear a beehive
  • tall beehive
  • shape a beehive
  • matching beehives
  • 1960s beehive
Synonyms
  • updo

    a general word for hair arranged up off the neck

  • bouffant

    suggests a full, raised style and often overlaps in period fashion

  • hairdo

    a broad informal word for a hairstyle

Grammar Patterns

wear your hair in a beehive

shape a beehive

Usage Note

Mostly used for a very full, tall hairstyle linked with 1960s fashion. Distinguish from sense 1, which names the structure where bees are kept.

Common Mistakes

She made a beehive on her head hair.
She wore her hair in a beehive.
this sense names the hairstyle or hair shape, not a separate object.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

For sense 1, beehive usually means the box or built structure where people keep bees. Hive is broader: it can mean either a man-made beehive or the bees' home more generally. Apiary is not one box at all; it means the whole place where several beehives are kept. Nest is even wider and can be used for many animals, but it is not the normal farming word for honey bees. So a beekeeper may clean one beehive in the morning, then walk through the apiary to inspect the rest. If bees are living inside a tree, people may simply call it a hive rather than a beehive.

beehive ↗hive ↗apiarynest ↗

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Beehive is a native English compound made from bee and hive. It first named the place where bees live, and later the same word was used for a tall hairstyle because its rounded shape looked similar.