bee

bee [-s, -'s] n

OE béo; see bumble bee, n.

1. Entity; creature; part of existence [word play on “be”.]
2. Apis; small buzzing insect; neuter hive worker that gathers honey, collects pollen, and produces wax cells for honey storage; (see Judges 14:8).
3. Paradox; puzzle; contradiction of pleasure and pain.
4. Phrase. “Busy bee”: diligent person; industrious child; [quoted from children's hymn by Isaac Watts “Against Idleness and Mischief”; Anne Brontë quotes the first line in the Tenant of Wildfell Hall.]
5. Phrase. “Bumble bee”: heavy-laden winged insect; large, buzzing flower-loving species of the apis.