beeline en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Etymology
From bee + line, due to the belief that a bee returns to its hive in a straight course, originally an Americanism.
Meanings
-
A very direct or quick path or trip.
to make / strike a beeline for / to something
Hershie made a beeline for Thomas's table, not making eye-contact with the others — old-guard activists who still saw him as a tool of the war-machine.
1998, Cory Doctorow, Super Man and the Bug Out:Discussing these and kindred topics they made a beeline across the back of the Customhouse and passed under the Loop Line bridge where a brazier of coke burning in front of a sentrybox or something like one attracted their rather lagging footsteps.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:The children made a beeline to the swimming pool.
- (historical) A dynamite fuse made with a small quantity of dynamite powder along its length, so that the spark travels quickly and at a specific known rate.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| bee-line | alternative | lexicographic | |
| beelines | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Translations (14)
ru по прямо́й (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · fi lyhin reitti (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · ba тура һауа юлы (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · cs vzdušná čára (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · fr à vol d'oiseau (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · de Luftlinie (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · pl najprostsza droga (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · ru напряму́ю (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · cs přímá cesta (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · es derechera (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · cs přímá dráha (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · nl rechte lijn (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · ru прямиком (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel) · es derecera (straight course, ignoring established paths of travel)