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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BEE, n.¹ In gen. used as in St.Eng. bee, but note the following:

1. A whim, a caprice, a fanciful idea.Sc. 1725 A. Ramsay T.T.Misc., Auld Goodman (1871) 116:
Why dost thou pleen? I thee maintain, For meal and mawt thou disna want; But thy wild bees I canna please.Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems 77:
I'll gi'e the match a heeze, And try to cure auld Helen o' the bees.Abd. 1824 G. Smith Douglas 60:
Ye've lucky mony bees intill your head.Ayr. 1792 Burns To G. Thomson in Letters (ed. R. W. Mackenna) 14th Nov.:
I take up one or another, just as the bee of the moment buzzes in my bonnet-lug.

2. Phrases: (1) Bees in (o') the brain (see quot.); (2) have a bee in one's bonnet or bonnet-case, the first being now common in St.Eng.; to be hare-brained, mad in some respect; (3) in the bees, beis, “his head is in the bees,” he is confused, stupified [sic], or light-headed (Jam.⁴ 1877).(1) Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 59:
Bees in the Brain. People, after they have been “fou,” feel, as they are returning to their wits again, a bizzing and “singin” in the head, which are called bees o' the brain; also, when they are getting intoxicated, they feel these fanciful insects.(2) Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 321:
There is a bee in your bonnet case.(3) Sc. 1814 Scott Waverley lxvi.:
This word had somewhat a sedative effect, but the Bailie's head, as he expressed himself, was still “in the bees.”Abd. 1790 A. Shirrefs Poems 40:
Wha's fau't was it your head was i' the bees? 'Twas i' your pow'r to lat the drink alane. [The earliest quot. in N.E.D. for bee, a fanciful idea, is from G. Douglas Aen. (1513) viii. Prol. 120: “Quhat bern be thou in bed, with head full of beis?”]

3. Combs.: (1) Bee-ale, “a species of beer, or rather mead, made from the refuse of honey” (n.Sc. 1808 Jam.); Abd.² 1933:
Will ye hae a drink o' bee-ale? I canna keep it i' the bottle; it's aye blawin' the corks.

(2) Bees' bike (byke). See Bike, Byke.

(3) bee-bole, a small recess or niche in a garden wall for holding a straw bee-hive (Ags. 1961 Dundee Courier (18 Feb.) 6, Ags. 1975). See Bole, n.¹.

(4) bee-eater, Sc. usage: the great tit, Parus major (s.Sc. 1911 A. H. Evans Fauna of Tweed 66).

(5) Bee-headit, -heidit, -heided, -headed. (See first quot.). Hence bee-heiditness. Sc. 1825 Jam.²:
Bee-headit. Harebrained, unsettled. “Ye needna mind him, he's a bee-headed bodie.” This conveys nearly the same idea with the phrase, “to hae a bee in one's bonnet.” Abd. 1909 J. T. Jeannie Jaffray 246:
Bit he prefers to mairry his hoose-keeper . . . a sensible gweed-leukin' lass. . . . Nane o' yer fleein' bee-heidit craturs, withoot a grain o' soleedity.Lnk. 1887 A. Wardrop Mid-Cauther Fair 237:
The infernal lookin' yite . . . yer bee-heided maister.Slk. 1892 W. M. Adamson Betty Blether 61:
A victim tae the bee-heiditness o' a certain specimen of humanity.Gsw. 1985 Michael Munro The Patter 10:
bee-heided Scatter-brained, forgetful, distracted: 'Ma man's that bee-heided he canny mind his ain phone number.' Edb. 2003:
That laddie is that bee heidit Ah dinnae ken hoo he'll make ony thing o hissel.

4. A crustacean, Aega tridens, which burrows into the bodies of fish caught on a line (Sh. 1975).Sh. 1883 J. R. Tudor Ork. and Sh. 134:
The fish taken are rendered worthless by the aega tridens, or bee, as it is termed in Northmaven.