beeline

• bee-line

From bee +‎ line, due to the belief that a bee returns to its hive in a straight course.

• Audio (US)

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• IPA^(key): /ˈbiːlaɪn/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -iːlaɪn

beeline (plural beelines)

1. A very direct or quick path or trip.

   The children made a beeline to the swimming pool.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:

     , Episode 16

     Discussing these and kindred topics they made a beeline across the back of the Customhouse and passed under the Loop Line bridge where a brazier of coke burning in front of a sentrybox or something like one attracted their rather lagging footsteps.

2. (mining, chiefly historical) A dynamite fuse made with a small quantity of dynamite powder along its length, so that the spark travels quickly and at a specific known rate.

beeline (third-person singular simple present beelines, present participle beelining, simple past and past participle beelined)

1. To travel in a straight course, ignoring established paths of travel.

• as the crow flies
• like a martin to his gourd