Unhive
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To drive or remove (bees) from a hive. transitive
"[T]he Mercers encreaſing prodigiouſly vvent back into the City; there like Bees unhiv'd they hover about a vvhile, not knovving vvhere to fix; but at laſt, as if they vvould come back to the old Hive in Pater-noſter Rovv, but could not be admitted, the ſvvarm ſettled on Lu[d]gate-hill."
- 2 To expel (a crowd, etc.) of habitation or shelter; to disband. archaic, transitive
"But if there be any who are herin delinquent; it were more justice and generosity to give a Catalogue of such Drones to those who have an undoubted Power to make them Labour, or Unhive them: And that the Righteous be not as the Wicked."
- 3 To break apart; to disrupt.
"It would have been a continual hell of time-consuming impugnable argument, bringing on the kind of conjugal weather that closesup the rose and unhives the family for lack of any honey whatsoever."
Example
More examples"[T]he Mercers encreaſing prodigiouſly vvent back into the City; there like Bees unhiv'd they hover about a vvhile, not knovving vvhere to fix; but at laſt, as if they vvould come back to the old Hive in Pater-noſter Rovv, but could not be admitted, the ſvvarm ſettled on Lu[d]gate-hill."
Etymology
From un- + hive.
More for "unhive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.