hive

plural hives

1. collectiveA structure, whether artificial or natural, for housing a swarm of honeybees.

   First, for thy Bees a quiet Station find, / And lodge 'em under Covert of the Wind: / For Winds, when homeward they return, will drive / The loaded Carriers from their Ev'ning Hive.

   1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, lines 10–13

   Synonyms: beehive

2. The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.

   When that the general is not like the hive, to whom the foragers shall all repair, what honey is expected?

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

3. A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.

   There the horde of Roman robbers mock at a barbarous adversary. / There the hive of Roman liars worship a gluttonous emperor-idiot.

   1864, Alfred Tennyson, “[Experiments.] Boädicea”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza 3, page 170

4. Microsoft WindowscomputingA section of the registry.

   Windows builds the registry from the five registry hives[…]

   2006, Jean Andrews, Fixing Windows XP, page 352

   1 more example

   For devices built with hive-based registry implementation, the registry data are broken into three different hives — the boot hive, system hive, and user hive.

   2011, Samuel Phung, Professional Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0

present singular third person hives · participle present hiving · participle past hived · past hived

1. transitiveTo collect (bees) into a hive.

   to hive a swarm of bees

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

   Hiving wisdom with each studious year.

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

3. intransitiveTo form a hive-like entity.
4. intransitiveTo take lodging or shelter together; to reside in a collective body.

   1725, Alexander Pope, letter to Martha Blount […] to get into warmer houses, and hive together in cities

   1 more example

   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, →OCLC, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]

5. biologyOf insects: to enter or possess a hive.

plural hives

1. An itchy, red, swollen area of the skin; singular or attributive form of hives.

   [She had an] itchy hive reaction on her chest—it always seemed to happen when she talked to her mother.

   (Can we date this quote?), Tamie Dearen, Promise of Hope: Christian Christmas Romance, Tamie Dearen

   5 more examples

   […] if you are allergic to it, the skin produces a localized red, itchy reaction, a hive. The hive appears within minutes of the allergy skin test and lasts up to approximately 24 hours.

   2003, Christopher H. Fanta, Lynda M. Cristiano, Kenan E. Haver, The Harvard Medical School Guide to Taking Control of Asthma: A Comprehensive Prevention and Treatment Plan for You and Your Family, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 55

   Most people will develop a small, itchy hive at the site of the sting that will subside in 30 to 60 minutes (sting may be accompanied by burning pain). Each ant inflicts seven to eight stings. Within 4 hours, a small blister will develop at the site.

   2003, Dennis Krebs, Special Operations Mission Planning Field Guide, Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, page 74

   Itchy, hive-like bumps turn into solid knotlike eruptions, which can last from a few days to several months.

   2003 January 20, Editors of Parents Magazine, The Parents Answer Book: From Birth Through Age Three, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 567

   [...] a bite or a hive, he wasn't sure which, but it was bloody itchy. It was probably a hive. He was very stressed.

   2018 January 11, Jo Spain, The Confession: A totally addictive psychological thriller with shocking twists and turns, Quercus, →ISBN

   A hard, burning button erupted on my forehead, an itchy hive. I wanted to scratch it, but refrained. It seemed to be traveling slowly from one side of my face to the other. I was sweating profusely.

   2021, Alexander Lobrano, My Place at the Table: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris, Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 195