English

Alternative forms

mother hive

Noun

mother-hive

1. the principal or source hive of a colony of bees

   A mother-hive of bees is 24 pence in value. — Arthur Wade-Evans, Welsh Medieval Law

2. a location similarly serving as the source of a group of people

   [John Whitman] came over in the True Love in 1640 to America and lived in Weymouth, Mass., which place became the mother-hive of the New Englanders of the name. — Walt Whitman, "Specimen Days"

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