honeycomb
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhʌnikəʊm/
ipa: /ˈhʌniˌkoʊm/
Forms: form: honeycombs
form: honeycombing
form: honeycombed
form: honeycombed
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”. The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The ordinary tourist who visits the Boulak museum and the Necropolis of Sakkara, and then runs up to the First or the Second Cataract, is apt to think that the subject must be wellnigh exhausted; and is scarcely conscious of the fact that the banks of the Nile from Cairo to Thebes, between which he glides so rapidly in a Cook's steamer, or, more tranquilly, journeys in a dahabeeya, are strewn with the mounds of ancient cities, especially on the eastern shore, and that its cliffs are honeycombed with tombs.
ref: 1882, Laurence Oliphant, “Old and New”, in The Land of Khemi: Up and Down the Middle Nile, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 107:
qualifier: often passive voice
glosses: To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to become hollow or weakened in this way.
examples: text: Termites will honeycomb a porch made of untreated pine.
text: [M]any of the pillars of the temple of Serapis at Puteoli vvere penetrated by theſe animals. […] [T]he pholas muſt have pierced into them ſince they vvere erected; for no vvorkmen vvould have laboured a pillar into form, if it had been honey-combed by vvorms in the quarry.
ref: 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Multival[v]e Shell-fish”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 62:
text: Twenty ninja followed him from the darkness and another fifteen took up defensive positions at both ends of the corridor to guard this escape route that led through a maze of forgotten cellars and passages honeycombing the castle to one of Ishido's secret bolt holes under the moat, thence to the city.
ref: 1975, James Clavell, chapter LVII, in Shōgun: A Novel of Japan, 1st American edition, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books, →ISBN, book V, page 967:
text: New Alresford is constantly mispronounced, T-shaped, honeycombed with cellars, packed with antique shops, riddled with woodworm, surrounded by watercress. The name - which means 'ford by the alders' - is pronounced 'Allsford'; and no one ever uses 'New', though they do call the adjoining village Old Alresford.
ref: 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 144:
qualifier: often passive voice
glosses: To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).
qualifier: often passive voice
glosses: To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.
qualifier: often passive voice; chiefly passive voice; chiefly passive voice
glosses: To make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.
topics: architecture
qualifier: often passive voice
glosses: To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4).
glosses: To become riddled with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to become hollow or weakened in this way.
Derived terms: word: honeycombed
word: honeycombing
Related terms: favaginous
beeswax