bumbee n [Scots, nIr, nEngl dial]
A bumblebee.
1808 Amer. & Commercial Daily Advt. (Baltimore MD) 5 Sept 1/4, When you go to court, you may see a great many of those who come out of the little offices in the neighbourhood, “like bum bees from their holes buzzing through the season.” 1870 Daily Eve. Bulletin (San Francisco CA) 30 Apr [5]/1, But I’m sad as the dickens—I am—/ My gal gave the mitten to me./ Ah, where will I go, and what will I do?/ I feel like a crazy bum-bee. 1882 IA State Reporter (Waterloo) 19 July [7]/4 (newspaperarchive.com), We know it is the custom of the farmer boys, at least it used to be, to wage relentless warfare on the bumbees or rather bumble bees. 1883 Forest & Stream 20.443 MS [Black], Den dat yarler town preacher nigger what look like he bin wraslin’ wid er bum’bee ness, he pint at Ole Lawyer. 1884 (1885) McCook Tenants 143 PA, If there were a “bum-bees’” nest anywhere in the neighborhood . . Harry might be trusted to point out the locality. 1923 Price Dreams 4 (Hench Coll.) WV,Them bum-bees mean [for me] to right about, It[’s] back to the big open woods fer me. 1950 PADS 14.17 SC, Bumbee. . . The bumblebee. A Scottish usage surviving in lower S.C. 1982 Barrick Coll. sePA, Bum-bee—bumblebee.