the bee's knees

短语

好极了

发音

AU

词形变化

only 复数

释义与例句

n.
  1. 1.

    Something or someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.

    好极了

    很棒

    非正式 过时 习语 仅复数

    We had strawberry shortcake for breakfast on Saturday and the kids thought it was the bee’s knees.

    I used to play in a band when I was younger. We had a few fans and we thought we were the bee’s knees.

  2. 2.

    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bee, -'s, knee. Corbiculae.

    仅复数

词源

Attested since 1922, of unclear origin. There are several suggested origins, but it most likely arose in imitation of the numerous animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s such as the cat's pyjamas, cat's whiskers, cat's meow, gnat's elbow, monkey's eyebrows etc. A popular folk etymology has the phrase referring to the world champion dancer Bee Jackson. Another suggestion is that the phrase is a corruption of business. The singular bee's knee is attested from the late 18th century meaning something small or insignificant in the phrase big as a bee's knee. Also as weak as a bee's knee is attested in Ireland (1870). It is possible that the bee's knees is a deliberate inversion of this meaning but is not attested. Another possibility is that this is a reference to the (visible) blobs of pollen in bees' corbiculae.

来源：wiktionary