honeycomb
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: compound
Topics: architecture
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English honycomb, 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. Compare Saterland Frisian Hunichmoarte (“honeycomb”), West Frisian huningskiif (“honeycomb”), Dutch honingraat (“honeycomb”), German Honigwabe (“honeycomb”).
Compound parts: honey
comb
Inflected forms:
form: honeycombs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: honeycombing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: honeycombed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: honeycombed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: honey-comb
pos: verb
tags: alternative
dated
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Termites will honeycomb a porch made of untreated pine.
[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.
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.
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.
gloss: To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
gloss: To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To become riddled with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to become hollow or weakened in this way.
pos: verb
tags: also
archaic
figuratively
intransitive
Related words: favaginous
beeswax
Derived words: honeycombed
honeycombing
Translations: