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honey definition

honey (hun′ē)

noun pl. honeys -·eys

  1. a thick, sweet, syrupy substance that bees make as food from the nectar of flowers and store in honeycombs
    1. anything like honey in texture, color, etc.
    2. sweet quality; sweetness
  3. sweet one; darling; dear: often a term of affectionate address
  4. ☆ Informal something pleasing or excellent of its kind a honey of an idea

Etymology: ME honi, hunig < OE hunig, akin to Ger honig (OHG honang) < IE base *kenekó-, honey-yellow > Sans kāñcana-, golden

adjective

  1. of or like honey
  2. sweet; dear

transitive verb honeyed -·eyed or honied -·ied, honeying -·ey·ing

  1. to make sweet or pleasant as with honey
  2. to speak sweetly or lovingly to
  3. to flatter

intransitive verb

to speak sweetly or lovingly; be very affectionate, attentive, or coaxing

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

honey Synonyms

honey

n.

nectar, syrup, molasses, treacle (British), sugar. see also food, syrup.

Types of honey include: comb, extracted, strained, creamed, wild, mountain, desert, select, grated; linn, basswood, white clover, sweet clover, buckwheat, goldenrod, alfalfa, orange blossom, tupelo, locust, sage, currant, cleome, cotton, eucalyptus, sycamore, teasel, thyme, barberry, heather, hawthorn;


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

honey Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • sip: The bee came to sip the honey, but its feet stuck to the honey pot and it could not get away.

Adjective modifier

  • runny: Heat is usually the main factor in causing runny honey.

Modifies a noun

  • bee: Most honey bees in Britain come from domestic hive colonies.

Noun used with modifier

  • manuka: The existence of the UMF in manuka honey is found by testing for its level of antibacterial activity.

Possessives

  • baker: Labeling with information about origin or regional source cannot be applied to either baker's honey or filtered honey.

Preposition: from

  • bee: Two beekeepers sell us honey from bees they keep in the middle of the farm.
honey usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

honey quotes

  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

-Bible (Old Testament)

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

-Bible (Old Testament)

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

-Bible (NewTestament)

honey quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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"honey." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/honey>

APA Style

honey. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/honey

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