Definition of "hive"

A structure, whether artificial or natural, for housing a swarm of honeybees.  quotations  examples

The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.  quotations  examples

A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.  quotations  examples

(computing, Microsoft Windows) A section of the registry.  quotations  examples

(transitive)

1. To collect (bees) into a hive.  examples

2. To store (something other than bees) in, or as if in, a hive.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Hiving wisdom with each studious year.

     1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], (please specify the stanza number)

(intransitive)

1. To form a hive-like entity.  examples

2. To take lodging or shelter together; to reside in a collective body.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder, / Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day / More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me; / Therefore I part with him; and part with him / To one what I would have him help to waste / His borrowed purse. […]

     c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]

   • […] to get into warmer houses, and hive together in cities

     1725, Alexander Pope, letter to Martha Blount

3. (entomology) Of insects: to enter or possess a hive.