| 1. | a habitation or dwelling-place constructed for bees, usually either dome-shaped or box-shaped. |
| 2. | a natural habitation of bees, as a hollowed-out tree. |
| 3. | a crowded, busy place. |
| 4. | something resembling an artificial beehive in appearance, as a hut or hairdo. |
| 5. | Also called beehive oven. an oven for converting coal into coke, characterized by its dome-shaped roof. |
Beehive
((catalog numbers NGC 2632 and M 44), open, or galactic, cluster of several hundred stars in the zodiacal constellation Cancer and located 590 light-years from Earth. Visible to the unaided eye as a small patch of bright haze, it was first distinguished as a group of stars by Galileo. It was included by Hipparchus in the earliest known star catalog, c. 129 BC.
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