honeycomb – English noun declension

English noun forms of honeycomb

Noun: honeycomb
Singularhoneycomb
Pluralhoneycombs

Sample Sentences

  • Pleaſant words are [as] an honycombe, ſweete to the ſoule, and health to the bones. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 16:24, column 2:]
  • So vvee read that God manifeſted by the Lots vvhich Saul cauſed to be dravvn [1 Sam[uel] 14.43.] the fault that Jonathan had committed, in eating a honey-comb, contrary to the oath taken by the people. [1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Word of God, and of Prophets”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 3rd part (Of a Christian Common-wealth), page 230:]
  • The cells of the bees are perfect hexagons: theſe, in every honeycomb, are double, opening on either ſide, and cloſed at the bottom. [1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Bee”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, part IV (Of Crustaceous and Testaceous Fishes), page 10:]
  • There was chocolate, new milk, honeycomb with its liquid amber droppings fragrant of a thousand flowers, a small loaf, and a little basket of green figs. [1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 9:]
  • The wood porch was a honeycomb of termite tunnels before we replaced it.
  • [There is in Thomas Jefferson] evidence of a mind, soured, yet seeking for popularity, and eaten to a honeycomb with ambition, yet weak, confused, uninformed, and ignorant. [1797 June 20, John Adams, “To Uriah Forrest”, in The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: […], volume VIII, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published 1853, →OCLC, pages 546–547:]
  • A rudimentall reſemblance hereof there is in the cruciated and rugged folds of the Reticulum, or Net-like Ventricle of ruminating horned animals, vvhich is the ſecond in order, and culinarily called the Honey-comb. [[1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 149:]
  • Of the four ſtomachs vvith vvhich ruminant animals are furniſhed, the firſt is called the paunch, vvhich receives the food after it has been ſlightly chevved; the ſecond is called the honeycomb, and is properly nothing more than a continuation of the former; […] [[1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Ruminating Animals”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 3:]
  • [F]or he [Jesus Christ] vvas the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and from him being crucified for our ſinnes, and ſlaine for our redemption, vve receive our honey and our honey-combe, that is to ſay, peace vvith God the Father. [1657, Samuel Purchas, “[The Second Part. Being Meditations and Observations, Theologicall, and Morall, upon the Nature of Bees.] The Third Centurie.”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] M. S. for Thomas Parkhurst, […], →OCLC, section XXXVI, page 360:]
  • Yes, Frank, what I have is my own, if labour in getting, and care in augmenting, can make a right of property; and no drone shall feed on my honeycomb. [1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 41:]
  • [W]as he not / A full-cell'd honeycomb of eloquence / Stored from all flowers? Poet-like he spoke. [1842, Alfred Tennyson, “[English Idyls and Other Poems. (Published 1842.)] Edwin Morris; or, The Lake”, in Poems, 8th edition, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 231:]
  • Adievv; / My honey-combe hovv ſvveet thou art, […] [c. 1623–1624 – 1630s, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Lovers Progres”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 86, column 2:]
  • Svveet Hony-Comb, don't be ſo VVaſpiſh: […] [1702, [Colley] Cibber, She Wou’d, and She Wou’d Not, or The Kind Impostor. A Comedy. […], London: […] William Turner […], and John Nutt, […], published 1703, →OCLC, Act III, page 30:]
  • honeycomb toffee

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”). See: Middle English Nouns 'honycomb', Dutch Nouns 'honingraat'.