the bee's knees
- 1Something or someone excellent, wonderful beyond the ordinary, or cool.
After one taste of the homemade peach pie, the whole table agreed it was the bee's knees.
Since his promotion he struts around the office as if he were the bee's knees.
Note
The phrase is on record from 1922 and most likely began as one of the animal nonsense phrases popular in that decade, beside the cat's whiskers, the cat's pajamas and the cat's meow. It always keeps its the, and despite the plural knees it praises one thing: the shortcake was the bee's knees. Aimed at a person it is often teasing, as in thinking you are the bee's knees.
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Origin
Attested since 1922 and of unclear origin, it most likely arose in imitation of the many animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s, such as the cat's pyjamas, the cat's whiskers and the cat's meow. Other suggestions include the dancer Bee Jackson (a popular folk etymology), a corruption of business, a deliberate but unattested inversion of the older bee's knee "something small or insignificant" (late 18th century), and the visible blobs of pollen on bees' legs.