hive

noun

1. A structure, whether artificial or natural, for housing a swarm of honeybees.

   “First, for thy Bees a quiet Station find, / And lodge 'em under Covert of the Wind: / For Winds, when homeward they return, will drive / The loaded Carriers from their Ev'ning Hive.”

2. The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.

   “When that the general is not like the hive, to whom the foragers shall all repair, what honey is expected?”

3. A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd.

   “There the horde of Roman robbers mock at a barbarous adversary. / There the hive of Roman liars worship a gluttonous emperor-idiot.”

4. A section of the registry.

   “Windows builds the registry from the five registry hives[…]”

   “For devices built with hive-based registry implementation, the registry data are broken into three different hives — the boot hive, system hive, and user hive.”

5. An itchy, red, swollen area of the skin; singular or attributive form of hives.

   “[…] if you are allergic to it, the skin produces a localized red, itchy reaction, a hive. The hive appears within minutes of the allergy skin test and lasts up to approximately 24 hours.”

   “Most people will develop a small, itchy hive at the site of the sting that will subside in 30 to 60 minutes (sting may be accompanied by burning pain). Each ant inflicts seven to eight stings. Within 4 hours, a small blister will develop at the site.”

   “Itchy, hive-like bumps turn into solid knotlike eruptions, which can last from a few days to several months.”

   “[She had an] itchy hive reaction on her chest—it always seemed to happen when she talked to her mother.”

   “[...] a bite or a hive, he wasn't sure which, but it was bloody itchy. It was probably a hive. He was very stressed.”

verb

1. (transitive)To collect (bees) into a hive.

   “to hive a swarm of bees”

2. (transitive)To store (something other than bees) in, or as if in, a hive.

   “Hiving wisdom with each studious year.”

3. (intransitive)To form a hive-like entity.
4. (intransitive)To take lodging or shelter together; to reside in a collective body.

   “The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder, / Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day / More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me; / Therefore I part with him; and part with him / To one what I would have him help to waste / His borrowed purse. […]”

   “1725, Alexander Pope, letter to Martha Blount […] to get into warmer houses, and hive together in cities”

5. Of insects: to enter or possess a hive.