put the bee on

verb — 2 senses

put the bee on

verb
1

US, Slang To finish off; to beat.

  • When Carmen quipped in, “Well, Mr. President somebody has to put the bee on them,” the General asserted, “It won't be me, never.”2001, Travis Beal Jacobs, Eisenhower at Columbia, Transaction, page 152:
2

US, Slang To beg from; to borrow money from.

  • Sometimes I'd see a woman in the backyard, and, if she had a kind face I'd put the bee on her.1938, Clifford Robe Shaw, Henry Donald McKay, “et al.”, in Brothers in Crime, University of Chicago, page 157:
  • I don’t want to be the kind of a guy that would take advantage of him. You know one time I put the bee on him for a buck.1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.