Definition of "bee"

His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge […].

1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte

An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

Can there be a more formall, and better ordered policie, divided into so severall charges and offices, more constantly entertained, and better maintained, than that of Bees?

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

Ariell: / Where the Bee ſucks, there ſuck I, / In a Cowslips bell, I lie, / There I cowch when Owles doe crie, / On the Batts backe I doe flie / after Sommer merrily. / Merrily, merrily, ſhall I liue now / Vnder the bloſſom that hangs on the Bow.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i], page 17

Bees are the moſt excellent of all Inſects vvhatſoever, and expreſſe both vvorth and vvonder in all their vvaies: […]

1657, Samuel Purchas, “The Excellency of Bees”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] R. I. for Thomas Parkhurst, […], page 1

Bees pollinate many of the world’s crops—a service estimated to be worth $15 billion a year in America alone.

2012 March 31, “Subtle poison”, in The Economist

The cellar […] was dug by a bee in a single day.

1856, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime

There was but little variation in types of buildings in the pioneer period: house, church, store, barn and mill were usually much alike except in size, and a raising bee was the ordinary means of their erection.

1973, Alan Skeoch, Tony H. Smith, Canadians and their society, page 139

Particularly resistant, for example, in many parts of northern Europe was the “spinning bee”, a nocturnal gathering of women to exchange gossip, stories, refreshment and – crucially – light and heat, as they spun wool or flax, knitted or sewed.

2011 September 21, Tim Blanning, “The reinvention of the night”, in Times Literary Supplement

And kyng Arthur gaf her a ryche bee of gold and soo she departed

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Caxton, Book 7, Chapter xxxv

...restoring unto the world much gold richly adorning his Sword, two hundred Rubies, many hundred Imperial Coynes, three hundred golden Bees, the bones and horseshoe of his horse enterred with him...

1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin, published 2005, page 16

held that a ‘Nicholaitan is an heretike, like Nicholas, who held that wiues should bee common to all alike.’

1604, Reverend Cawdrey, Table Aleph

"The ee-vee-ee-ar-en-oh-ee-ell-blank-bee-ell-oh-ess-ess-oh-em-blank-en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar is especially dee-ee-ell-eye-cee-eye-oh-you-ess." Our friends thanked the spelling bee for his help and then he buzzed off.

2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170