bee [OE] A form of the word bee is found in almost all the languages that are closely related to English, and the familiar insect has inspired numerous familiar phrases. Busy as a bee dates from at least the 14th century. People used to describe an obsessive person as having a head full of bees [M16th], whereas we now say that you have a bee in your bonnet [M19th]. Before close studies of insect behaviour, people believed that bees instinctively take a straight line when returning to the hive. This is the origin of beeline [M19th]. If you make a beeline for a place, you hurry directly to it. A spelling bee is a spelling contest, and a sewing bee a gathering for people to do their sewing together. This use, to mean ‘a meeting for communal work or amusement’, was suggested by the insect’s social nature, and is first recorded in the USA in the 1760s.