honey
/ˈhʌni/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms honeys honies honeyer honier honeyest honiest honeying honeyed hony hunney hunny
- noun (uncountable) A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans. “The honey in the pot should last for years.”
- noun (countable) A variety of this substance.
- noun (rare) Nectar.
- noun (figuratively) Something sweet or desirable.
- noun A term of affection. “Honey, would you take out the trash?”
- noun (countable, informal) A woman, especially an attractive one. “Man, there are some fine honeys here tonight!”
- noun A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.
- noun (African-American Vernacular, vulgar) Precum; pre-ejaculate.
- adjective Involving or resembling honey.
- adjective Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like most types of honey.
- adjective Honey-sweet.
- verb (transitive) To sweeten; to make agreeable.
- verb (transitive) To add honey to.
- verb (intransitive) To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments.
- verb (intransitive) To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.
- proper noun A female given name
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
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, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk honning, Swedish honung, Faroese hunangur, Icelandic hunang), 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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sweet viscid fluid, esp. that collected by bees from flowers of plants, and deposited in the cells of the honeycomb.
- noun That which is sweet or pleasant, like honey.
- verb To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments; also, to be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn. "Honeying and making love." Shak.
- verb To make agreeable; to cover or sweeten with, or as with, honey.
Etymology [OE. honi, huni, AS. hunig; akin to OS. honeg, D. & G. honig, OHG. honag, honang, Icel. hunang, Sw. håning, Dan. honning, cf. Gr. kaa grain.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “honey”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details