skep

plural skeps

1. A basket.

   Old women crouched over bags of Siamese rice, skeps of red and green peppers, purple egg-plants, bristly rambutans, pineapples, durians.

   1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 115

2. A beehive made of straw or wicker.

   He prised a skep from its stool and held it out, inverted, showing the dirty wreck of combs, with the vile grubs spinning their cocoons.

   1977, Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command

   2 more examples

   Three of the hives had been overturned and the others had been rocked to and fro. The modern hive is a fearful thing to upset; the combs are not static as in a skep, but hang loosely: when the hive is overturned they smash and pile up like a telescoped train.

   1958, John Crompton, A Hive of Bees

   She installs seven skeps at the furthest edge of the garden; on warm July days it is possible to hear the restless rumble of the bees from the house.

   2020, Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

   Synonyms: skip

present singular third person skeps · participle present skepping · participle past skepped · past skepped

1. transitiveTo transfer (bees) into a skep.