Meaning
To hurry straight toward a person, place, or thing, taking the most direct route and ignoring everything else on the way. Informal and neutral in register, it is used of people (and sometimes animals) heading purposefully and quickly for a goal. Informal and vivid, common in conversation and light journalism. Regional use: General English (American origin).
Origin
The image comes from the observed behaviour of honeybees: a forager that finds nectar returns to the hive and, through the waggle dance, enables the other bees to fly directly to the source, the bee's supposedly straight homeward flight standing for a direct course. The Phrase Finder notes that the expression is American and that all the early citations it located come from the USA; its earliest example is an accident report in the Davenport Daily Leader, though the page displays a plainly misprinted year for that 1890s Iowa paper. For firmer dating, Merriam-Webster records the underlying noun 'beeline', a straight direct course, from 1830 and the verb from 1882, consistent with general colloquial use in the United States through the later nineteenth century.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- beeline for
- beeline it to
- make a beeline to
- make a beeline toward
Usage Examples
- Whenever the buffet opens, my uncle makes a beeline for the dessert table.
- She made a beeline for the exit as soon as the credits started to roll.
- Tired and soaked, the hikers made a beeline for the nearest shelter.