Bee in your bonnet

We say that someone has a bee in their bonnet when they can’t stop talking or thinking about something. This might be because they are worried or angry about it. Or it might be because they are very interested in or excited about it.

Some examples:

• She’s got a real bee in her bonnet about the dangers of air travel; she can’t stop talking about it.
• He still thinks that Real Madrid should have won that match; he’s got a bee in his bonnet about it.
• He got interested in stamp collecting when he was a child; now he’s got quite a bee in his bonnet.
• I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about the plans for a new road. I won’t rest until they drop the idea.
• You seem to have a bee in your bonnet about that film. Perhaps you should give it a rest.

Bonnet isn’t a word that used very much now. It refers to a a kind of hat – so you might imagine what it’s like to have a bee in your hat. It might make you very worried or excited!

Here are some synonyms – or near synonyms:

• Excited
• Obsessed
• Fixated
• Fanatical
• Zealous
• Boosterish

And here are some other idioms:

• As busy as a bee. We use this to mean that someone is very active:
  • He’s always working. He’s as busy as a bee.
• Bee’s knees. When we say that something is the bee’s knees, we mean that it’s very good:
  • This cheese is the best I’ve ever tasted. It really is the bee’s knees.
• Ants in his pants. We say that someone has ants in their pants when they can’t keep still:
  • The boy is very lively today. He must have ants in his pants.

^{Posted by Graham}