queen bee

English

Wikipedia

Noun

queen bee (plural queen bees)

1. A reproductive female (especially the only one) in a colony of bees.
   • 1947, AI Root, The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, Kessinger 2005, p. 205:

     It is generally believed that the queen bee mates only once in her lifetime.

2. (idiomatic, colloquial) The most important or dominant woman in an organisation or situation.
   • 2003, Jim Hatfield, Extra Marital Temptations, iUniverse 2003, p. 28:

     She muttered to her mother, “There's that obnoxious redhead who thought she was the Queen Bee last year when she was a senior!”

Translations

reproductive female bee

• Catalan: abella reina
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蜂後 (cmn), 蜂后 (cmn) (fēnghòu)

• Dutch: moer (nl) f, bijenkoningin (nl) f
• Erzya: мекшава (mekshava)
• Esperanto: abelreĝino (eo), reĝinabelo (eo)
• Finnish: mehiläiskuningatar (fi)
• French: reine (fr) f (des abeilles) f
• Galician: abella raíña
• German: Bienenkönigin (de) f, Bienenweisel (de) m and f, Weisel (de) m and f, Stockmutter (de) f
• Greek: μέλισσα βασίλισσα (el) (mélissa vasílissa) f
• Hungarian: méhkirálynő (hu)
• Indonesian: lebah ratu
• Italian: ape regina (it) f

• Japanese: 女王バチ juō-bachi
• Jèrriais: vielle des bourdes f, méthe ès moûques f
• Korean: 여왕벌 yeowangbeol
• Latvian: bišu māte
• Old English: bēomōdor (ang) f
• Polish: królowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: abelha-rainha (pt) f, abelha-mestra (pt) f
• Russian: матка (ru) (mátka) f
• Serbo-Croatian: матица (sh) (matica) f
• Spanish: abeja reina (es) f
• Tamil: இராணித் தேனீ (ta)
• Turkish: kraliçe arı (tr)
• Volapük: bienajireg (vo), jireg bienas (vo), (older term, obsolete) biejireg (vo)