Definition of "honeycomb"

(uncountable) A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey; (countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance.  quotations  examples

(countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.  quotations

1. (countable, geometry) A space-filling packing of polytopes in three- or higher-dimensional space.  examples

2. (countable, technology)

   1. The texture of the surface of a solar cell, intended to increase its surface area and capture more sunlight.  examples

   2. (archaic) A defect in a material (especially metal) where small holes are present; specifically (construction), a defect in concrete consisting of numerous voids resulting from the failure of mortar to effectively fill the spaces among coarse aggregate particles.

   3. (chiefly aviation) Material manufactured with small hollow cells, sometimes sandwiched between two flat sheets, which is used to make light, stiff structural components.  examples

3. (countable, zoology) Short for honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”).  quotations

   Quotations

   • A rudimentall reſemblance hereof there is in the cruciated and rugged folds of the Reticulum, or Net-like Ventricle of ruminating horned animals, vvhich is the ſecond in order, and culinarily called the Honey-comb.]

     . Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […]; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, page 149

   • Of the four ſtomachs vvith vvhich ruminant animals are furniſhed, the firſt is called the paunch, vvhich receives the food after it has been ſlightly chevved; the ſecond is called the honeycomb, and is properly nothing more than a continuation of the former; […]]

     , new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], page 3

4. (uncountable, architecture) Short for honeycomb work (“especially in Moorish architecture: a form of ceiling ornamentation (especially of an arch or dome) made up of small vaulted arches”).  examples

(countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.  quotations

1. (countable, archaic) Used as a term of endearment: honey, sweetheart.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Adievv; / My honey-combe hovv ſvveet thou art, […]

     c. 1623–1624 – 1630s, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Lovers Progres”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, Act IV, scene i, page 86, column 2

   • Svveet Hony-Comb, don't be ſo VVaſpiſh: […]

     1702, [Colley] Cibber, She Wou’d, and She Wou’d Not, or The Kind Impostor. A Comedy. […], London: […] William Turner […], and John Nutt, […], published 1703, Act III, page 30

2. (uncountable, chiefly Australia, Britain, often attributive) A crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and water.  examples

(transitive, often passive voice)

1. To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to become hollow or weakened in this way.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The ordinary tourist who visits the Boulak museum and the Necropolis of Sakkara, and then runs up to the First or the Second Cataract, is apt to think that the subject must be wellnigh exhausted; and is scarcely conscious of the fact that the banks of the Nile from Cairo to Thebes, between which he glides so rapidly in a Cook's steamer, or, more tranquilly, journeys in a dahabeeya, are strewn with the mounds of ancient cities, especially on the eastern shore, and that its cliffs are honeycombed with tombs.

     1882, Laurence Oliphant, “Old and New”, in The Land of Khemi: Up and Down the Middle Nile, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, page 107

2. To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [M]any of the pillars of the temple of Serapis at Puteoli vvere penetrated by theſe animals. […] [T]he pholas muſt have pierced into them ſince they vvere erected; for no vvorkmen vvould have laboured a pillar into form, if it had been honey-combed by vvorms in the quarry.

     1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Multival[v]e Shell-fish”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], page 62

   • Twenty ninja followed him from the darkness and another fifteen took up defensive positions at both ends of the corridor to guard this escape route that led through a maze of forgotten cellars and passages honeycombing the castle to one of Ishido's secret bolt holes under the moat, thence to the city.

     1975, James Clavell, chapter LVII, in Shōgun: A Novel of Japan, 1st American edition, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books, book V, page 967

3. To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.  examples

4. (figurative, chiefly passive voice) To make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.  examples

5. (architecture) To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4).  examples

(intransitive, also figurative, archaic) To become riddled with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to become hollow or weakened in this way.