Honey

/ˈhʌni/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang

adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans. uncountable, usually

    "The honey in the pot should last for years."

  2. 2
    a sweet yellow liquid produced by bees wordnet
  3. 3
    A variety of this substance. countable, usually

    "The physical properties of the different honeys, color, granulation, aroma, flavor, etc., are indicated in the table only in a very general way."

  4. 4
    a beloved person; used as terms of endearment wordnet
  5. 5
    Nectar. rare, uncountable, usually
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    Something sweet or desirable. figuratively, uncountable, usually

    "O my love, my wife! / Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty."

  2. 7
    A term of affection. uncountable, usually

    "Honey, would you take out the trash?"

  3. 8
    A woman, especially an attractive one. countable, informal, usually

    "Man, there are some fine honeys here tonight!"

  4. 9
    A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey. uncountable, usually
  5. 10
    Precum; pre-ejaculate. uncountable, usually, vulgar
Verb
  1. 1
    To sweeten; to make agreeable. transitive
  2. 2
    sweeten with honey wordnet
  3. 3
    To add honey to. transitive
  4. 4
    To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments. intransitive

    "Honeying and making love."

  5. 5
    To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn. intransitive

    "[O]ne / Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men / But honeying at the whisper of a lord; / And one the Master, as a rogue in grain / Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Involving or resembling honey.

    "So work the honey-bees, / Creatures that by a rule in nature teach / The act of order to a peopled kingdom."

  2. 2
    Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like most types of honey.

    "Then I looked close at the scalp he stroked, which was of the silkiest blonde. For a moment I was sure it come from Olga’s dear head, and reckoned also he had little Gus’s fine skull-cover someplace among his filthy effects, the stinking old savage, living out his life of murder, rapine, and squalor, and I almost knifed him before I collected myself and realized the hair was honeyer than my Swedish wife’s."

  3. 3
    Honey-sweet.

    "But he answered the question with the honiest—Bohemian honey—of smiles: […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    of something having the color of honey wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
sweetheartdarlingdearsweetieaceamber

Example

More examples

"Sugar replaced honey as a sweetener."

Etymology

From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare Saterland Frisian Hunich, West Frisian hunich, German Low German Honnig, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare North Frisian honning, hönning, West Frisian huning, Dutch honing, Swedish honung), from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂onk-o-s, from *kn̥h₂ónks. Cognate with Middle Welsh canecon (“gold”), Latin canicae pl (“bran”), Tocharian B kronkśe (“bee”), Albanian qengjë (“beehive”), Ancient Greek κνῆκος (knêkos, “safflower”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.

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