hive

1. a box or other shelter for a colony of domesticated bees
2. any structure made or used by a colony of bees, wasps, etc. as a nesting place
3. a colony of bees living in a hive; swarm
a crowd of busy, very active people
a place where many people are busy or actively engaged

Origin of hive

Middle English hyfe from OE, akin to Old Norse h?fr, ship's hull from Indo-European an unverified form keup- ( from base an unverified form keu-, to bend, curve) from source Classical Latin cupa, a tub

transitive verb

hived, hiv′ing

to put or gather (bees) into a hive
to store up (honey) in a hive
to store up for future use; garner

to enter a hive
to live together in or as in a hive

hive Idioms

hive off

to depart from a group
to separate from the whole: hived off the first graders to another playground

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MLA Style

"hive." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Hive>.

APA Style

hive. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Hive

hive

noun

a. A structure for housing domesticated honeybees.
b. A nest built by wild or feral bees.
c. A colony of bees living in such a structure or nest.
A place swarming with activity.

verb

hived, hiv·ing, hives

verb

transitive

To collect into a hive.
To store (honey) in a hive.
To store up; accumulate.

verb

intransitive

To enter and occupy a beehive.
To live with many others in close association.

Phrasal Verbs: hive off To set apart from a group: hived off the department into another division.

Origin of hive

Middle English from Old English héf

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"hive." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Hive>.

APA Style

hive. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Hive

Noun

(plural hives)

A structure for housing a swarm of honeybees.
The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.
A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.
a wretched hive of scum and villainy
(computing, Microsoft Windows) A section of the registry.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present hives, present participle hiving, simple past and past participle hived)

(intransitive, entomology) To enter or possess a hive.
(intransitive) To form a hive-like entity.
To collect into a hive.
to hive a swarm of bees
To store in a hive or similarly.
(intransitive) To take shelter or lodgings together; to reside in a collective body.

Origin

From Middle English hyfe, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-Germanic *hūbī (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 .