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# hive

«hive» in Mova's school dictionary: **a home for bees, either a box made by people or a natural…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a hive, hives); verb (hive off — UK; hive, hived)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A hive is a home for bees, either a box made by people or a natural nest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#m1)

2) A hive can mean all the bees living in it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#m2)

3) A hive of activity is a very busy place full of people working. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#m3)

4) (UK) To hive off part of something is to separate it to be run on its own. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#m4)

5) Hives (plural) is an itchy red rash on the skin, often from an allergy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science, a hive has a queen, workers and drones; they make honey and wax in hexagon-shaped cells. In everyday life, the classroom before a party is «a hive of activity». In safety, don't knock a hive; bee stings hurt and some people are allergic. Phrases: beehive, a hive of activity, hive off, break out in hives.

### examples

- The beekeeper opened the hive to collect honey. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x1)
- A hive can hold thousands of bees. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x2)
- The kitchen was a hive of activity before the party. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x3)
- The bees flew back to the hive at sunset. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x4)
- She broke out in hives after eating nuts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x5)
- The cells inside a hive are hexagons, with 6 sides each. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x6)
- The company hived off its toy business. (UK, formal) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x7)
- Don't poke a hive — the bees will sting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x8)
- He went on farther and saw a hive of bees in the forest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/#x9)

### note

Countable noun. «Hives» the rash is a plural with no singular. A «beehive» is the same thing as a hive. Bees build hexagon cells; a hexagon has 6 sides. Myth: bees don't die after every sting — honeybees usually do, but bumblebees and wasps can sting again.

### In the corpora

- [A hive can have about 50,000 bees: one queen, tens of thousands of female workers and some hundreds of males called drones.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/239-bees-the-waggle-dance-the-hive-and-honey/6/)
- [In autumn the beekeeper lifts the hive to check its weight, to be sure the bees have enough food for winter.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/344-honey-and-the-beekeepers-year/21/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «hive» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hive/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.