▪ I. hive, n.
(haɪv)
Forms: 1 h{yacu}f, 2– hive, (4 huive, 4–7 hyve, heve, 5 hyfe).
[OE. h{yacu}f:—OTeut. type *hûfi-z; not preserved elsewhere in Teutonic; prob. related to ON. h{uacu}fr hull of a ship, and to L. cūpa tub, cask. The form hēve is Kentish.]
1. An artificial receptacle for the habitation of a swarm of bees; a beehive.
Originally made, in a conical or dome-like form, of straw or the like, but now often a square box, constructed with movable compartments or other arrangements for the removal of the honey.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. 133 Alvearia, hyfi. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 123/16 Canistrum, uel aluearium, hyf. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 98 Wiþ ðæt beon æt ne fleon, ᵹenim þas ylcan wyrte..and ᵹehoh hy to ðære hyfe. a 1132 O.E. Chron. an. 1127 He wunede eall riht swa drane doð on hiue. 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 1408 So faste hii gonne aboute him scheue Ase don ben aboute þe heue. c 1325 Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in Wright Voc. 172 Rusche, hyve [Cambr. MS. huive]. c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 142 Þe bere delyteth myche in hony, and þer-fore he goth to an heve, to a swarm of been, & lycketh awey here hony. c 1460 Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 286 Honey takyn of a hyfe. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 179 Some make their Hives of Lanterne horne, or Glasse..that they may viewe the maner of their working. 1605 Camden Rem., Poems 7 Out of the heues came swarmes of Bees. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece iii. 515 Any sort of Hive, whether of Straw, Board, or Glass. 1881 T. W. Cowan Brit. Bee-kpr.'s Guide Bk. ix. (1889) 46 No hive can be considered complete unless it has some arrangement for securing pure honey in the comb. |
2. fig. A storehouse of sweet things.
| 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Home iv, Must he leave that nest, That hive of sweetnesse. 1670 Devout Commun. (1688) 143 Whose bosom is the hive and centre of all goodness. 1798 S. Rogers Ep. to a Friend 14 London hails thee to its splendid mart, Its hives of sweets, and cabinets of art. |
3. transf. a. A place swarming with busy occupants.
| 1634 S. R. Noble Soldier v. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 333 Religious houses are those hyves where Bees Make honey for mens soules. 1647 Cowley Mistr., Wish i, The Crowd, and Buz, and Murmurings Of this great Hive, the City. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 458 Our public hives of puerile resort. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 200 A busy and populous hive, in which new wealth was every day created. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 2 A private shipyard is a hive of industry. |
b. A place whence swarms of people issue; the nursery of a teeming race.
| 1788 Priestley Lect. Hist. v. lviii. 457 They no longer send forth those swarms of people..which made them be called the northern hive. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 2 Both the Danes and Saxons were undoubtedly swarms from the northern hive. 1835 Thirlwall Greece I. ii. 54 The hive whence the Pelasgian people issued. |
c. The abode of any gregarious domestic animal.
| 1641 Baker Chron. (1660) 31 Hens, Peacocks, Geese, and Ducks bred in and accustomed to houses, forsook their wonted hives, and turned wilde. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. 1 i. §3 The old hen of each hive or nide..is always anxious to retain her old nest. |
d. spec. A breeding-place for oysters.
| 1882 Daily Tel. 18 Aug. 5/1 The ostriculturist has designed what is termed a ‘hive’ made of limed tiles, to which the spat can readily affix itself. |
4. a. A hiveful of bees, a hived swarm.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 154 Foo unto hevys and enemy is the drane. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 125 The Commons like an angry Hiue of Bees That want their Leader, scatter vp and downe. 1711 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 219 [They] seemed to me to be just like a hive of bees working and labouring under huge weights of cares. |
b. transf. A swarming or teeming multitude.
| 1832–4 De Quincey Cæsars Wks. 1859 X. 168 Those Gothic, Vandal, and Frankish hives, who were as yet hidden behind a cloud of years. 1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. i. (1847) 2 It was here that the great hive of mankind was gathered together. 1864 Tennyson Boadicea 19 There the hive of Roman liars worship a gluttonous emperor-idiot. |
5. Something of the shape or structure of a beehive:
a. A head-covering of platted straw.
b. A capsule or case containing many cells.
| 1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 8 Upon her head a platted hive of straw. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 155 Microscopical seeds..For first, though they grow in a Case or Hive often⁓times bigger then one of these..being not above 1/32 part of an Inch in Diameter, whereas the Diameter of the Hive of them oftentimes exceeds two Inches. Ibid. 188 Whether the seed of certain Bees, sinking to the bottom, might there naturally form itself that vegetable hive, and take root. 1758 C. Lennox Henrietta (1761) I. 73 The shepherdess..with a straw hive on her head, and a tatter'd garment on. |
† 6. ? A contrivance of wickerwork, resembling a beehive, used for catching fish.
Obs.| 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 7 No..person..shal..take..in..any..net..lepe, hiue, crele..or any other engine..the yonge frie..of any kinde of salmon. 1558 Act 1 Eliz. c. 17 §3 No..person..shall..take Fishe withe any maner of Nett, Tramell, Keppe, Wore, Hyvy, Crele, or by any other Engyne. |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as
hive-bee, the common honey-bee;
hive-bound a., confined to a hive;
† hive-cot, a beehive;
† hive-dross, bee-glue, propolis;
hive-evil, a sickness to which bees are liable;
hive-honey, honey from a hive;
hive-moth, an alternative name for the wax-moth or honeycomb moth;
hive-nest, a structure consisting of an aggregation of many nests constructed and occupied by a colony of birds, such as those of the republican grosbeak and republican swallow;
hive-vine, ‘the partridge-berry or squaw-vine,
Mitchella repens’ (
Cent. Dict.).
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) II. 103 The instincts that actuate the common *hive-bee. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. xix. (1860) 411 The admirable architectural powers of the hive-bee. |
| 1921 R. Graves Pier-Glass 30 A *hive-bound bee. 1945 W. de la Mare Burning-Glass 67 As passive as the hive⁓bound bees. |
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 31 Lyke bees..Feaze away thee droane bees with sting, from maunger, or *hiuecot. |
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 916 Propolis the Arabians call Kur..the English, *Hive-dross. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Hive-dross or Bee-glue, a kind of Wax which Bees make at the Mouth of their Hive, to keep out the Cold. |
| 1607 Topsell Serpents (1658) 650 If they be too many, they bring a sicknesse called the *Hive-evill. |
| 1653 Walton Angler vi. 140 Take the stinking oil..and *Hive-honey, and annoint your bait therewith. |
| 1931 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 17 June 703/1 *Hive⁓moth (Galleria) at Nairobi. |
Hence
ˈhiveless a., destitute of a hive.
ˈhiveward adv., towards the hive.
| 1575 Gascoigne Herbs, Fruit Reconciliation Wks. II. 130 Like hiueless Bees they wander here and there. 1847 Tennyson Princess iv. 181, I..less from Indian craft Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at length The garden portals. |
▸
hive mind n. (a) Science Fiction a unified consciousness or intelligence formed by a number of alien individuals,
esp. where the resulting consciousness exerts control over its constituent members;
(b) any form of thinking or acting among a group of individuals, regarded variously as being stifling of individuality or as leading to a productive collective intelligence.
| 1950J. H. Schmitz in Galaxy Sci. Fiction Dec. 22/2 It's pretty certain, too, that the Halpa have the *hive-mind class of intelligence, so what goes for the nerve systems of most of the ones they send through to us might be nothing much more than secondary reflex-transmitters. 1973 Daily Tel. 24 Mar. 14/4 The social and aesthetic attitudes have been passed through the homogeniser of the bureaucratic hive-mind. 1986 O. S. Card Speaker for Dead (1987) ii. 42 The buggers had casually killed human beings, but only because they had a hive mind. 2003 InfoWorld 6 Jan. 32/2, I blogged that solution anyway because it was an interesting partial result that would provoke the blog hive mind to suggest how to take the next step. |
▪ II. hive, v. (
haɪv)
[f. hive n.] 1. trans. To gather (bees) into a hive; to locate (a swarm) in a hive.
| 1611 Cotgr., Rucher, to hiue, make hiues. 1615 W. Lawson Orch. & Gard. (1626) 2 Your Gardner must..watch his Bees, and hive them. 1796 Pegge Anonym. (1809) 265 Two swarms of Bees from different hives united, and were hived together. 1844 Gosse in Zoologist II. 607 A ‘gum’ or square box to hive the swarm for domestication. |
2. transf. and
fig. To shelter as in a hive; to afford shelter to, as a hive does; to house snugly.
| c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lvii. i, Lord..Hide me, hive me as thine owne Till those blasts be overblown. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. iii. ii, So hive him In the swan-skin coverlid, and cambric sheets, Till he work honey and wax. 1812 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXVII. 529 The successive swarms of sharpers, which that city has hived, are notorious. |
3. To hoard or store
up, as honey, in the hive.
| 1580 Golding in Baret's Alv. To Rdr. A v a, Of fower Tungs the flowers hyued bee, In one sweete iuice to serue the turne of thee. a 1659 Cleveland (J.), He at Fuscara's sleeve arriv'd Where all delicious sweets are hiv'd. 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. cvii, The other, deep and slow, exhausting thought, And hiving wisdom with each studious year. 1821 ― Sardan. iv. i. 312 Happier than the bee, Which hives not but from wholesome flowers. 1868 G. Duff Pol. Surv. 7 It pleased M. Marc Monnier..to hive up an enormous mass of information. |
4. a. intr. To enter the hive, take to the hive, as bees.
b. To live together as bees in a hive; also
transf. to lodge together.
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. v. 48 Drones hiue not with me, Therefore I part with him. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. i. Man (1858) 128 Where bees at night get home and hive. 1725 Pope Let. to Blount 13 Sept., We are..forc'd to..get into warmer houses and hive together in cities. 1871 J. Miller Songs Italy (1878) 81 Then I should hive within your hair, And I should bide in glory there. |
5. intr. hive off: To swarm off like bees. Now
esp., to break away from, to separate from, a group. Also
trans., to remove from a group, a large unit, etc., to make separate.
| a 1856 in Olmsted Slave States ii. (1861) 38 This way, gentlemen—this way!’..and the company immediately hived off to the second establishment. 1864 Cornh. Mag. Nov. 621 These emigrants are part of the swarm which annually hives off from the west. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 10 July 9/1 The Board is now hiving off to a mine with at least a promising name, the ‘Baron Rothschild’, in the Tati district. 1931 Economist 5 Dec. 1060/2 And even Syrai Proper has been made to hive off the autonomous Governments of the Jebel Druse and Alexandretta. 1937 Nature 16 Oct. 659/1 Experimental psychology..has hived off from physiology. 1951 Engineering 28 Sept. 403/2 The..firm..was ‘hived off’ from the parent company. 1957 Economist 30 Nov. 783/2 It will be remembered that, while part of the Moroccan Liberation Army..agreed to incorporation in the Royal Moroccan army, another part preferred to hive off and disappear into remote areas. 1959 Halas & Manvell Technique Film Animation xix. 257 Many animators with a flair for individual work have hived off from these studios. 1959 Duke of Bedford Silver-Plated Spoon x. 201 The trustees were slowly hiving off part of the family estates to meet the awful burden of taxation. 1961 T. Landau Encycl. Librarianship (ed. 2) 146/1 Large public library systems are increasingly ‘hiving off’ special sections dealing with foreign literature. 1963 Times 20 Apr. 7/6 The territorial wings of the U.F.P. in Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland would now ‘hive off’ with ‘full authority to act for themselves’ under new names. 1969 New Scientist 1 May 262/2 The large machines are beginning to sprout small sideshoots on to which specialized tasks can be hived off. 1971 Times 21 Dec. 14/3 Strong opposition to the British Steel Corporation's plans to hive off part of the River Don works at Sheffield..is likely to be encountered. |
Hence
hiving vbl. n. (also attrib.);
hiver, one who hives (bees).
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 185 b, For commonly in the tenth yeere after their first hiving, the whole stocke dieth. 1627 W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 265 The Church of no time may affoord hiuing for drones. 1707–12 Mortimer Husb. (J.), Let the hiver drink a cup of good beer, and wash his hands and face therewith. 1844 Tupper Crock of G. xxiii, With all her hiding and hiving propensities. 1876 Mrs. Whitney Sights & Ins. v. 25 All my hiving-up of what I am to gather. |