beeline
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of beeline
Explanation
A beeline is the swiftest, most direct route between two points. If you are shopping at the mall on a weekend afternoon and you see an empty parking space, you should make a beeline for it or risk circling the lot for hours. The word beeline combines the words bee and line. The idea behind the word is the belief that a bee, when it is done feeding, will take the shortest path back to its hive without delay or meandering. So beeline not only has the sense of being a direct route, but also that there is some haste behind the action. If you make a beeline for the chocolate at a party, you went straight to the dessert table without eating dinner first.
Vocabulary lists containing beeline
This Week in Pop Culture: February 2 - 8, 2019
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Red Kayak
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The Friendship War
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And while his impartiality occasionally and inevitably falters, the missteps show how difficult, and ultimately useless, it is to ignore humanity’s wide-ranging gray areas to make a beeline for black or white.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
And they’re part of a group of players who could make a beeline from NFL training camps to college campuses—and NIL paydays.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Ginger kitty Gino made a beeline for many.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Then I made a beeline for the heirloom tomatoes.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Then he makes a beeline to us, breathless, as the gang gathers on Naomi's lawn.
From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
