Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a superior person, or someone who poses as such.

[1905		Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: I’m teaching Mary and all the Tin Lids in the district to Dark An’ Dim, and they reckon I’m the bees knees, ants pants and nits tits all rolled into one].
1910		Woolwich Gaz. 5 July 4/7: There is one place [...] where this delicious edible [i.e. Scotch shortbread] can be had in its proper crispness and flavour [...] The real ‘bee’s knee’, it is.
1918		Uncle Sam 1 Jan. n.p.: Leiut. McNamara is the bee’s knees when it comes to drilling,. 1-2-3-4, hep, hep, tell the sergeant to get in step. What he doesn’t know about drilling isn’t worth while knowing.
1922		Washington Times (DC) 8 Oct. 48/2: Europe may be the bee’s knees to the Europens, but [etc.].
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 101: You’re the bee’s knees, for a fact! [Ibid.] 111: If I ain’t the turkey’s elbow when I’m inside this bathrobe, then there’s only two Frenchmen in Paris the year round!
1925		Reading Times (PA) 12 Feb. 4/3: My sweetie’s a high-brow and knows his groceries. He’s the worm’s ribs .
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 181: Well, this Joshua thought he was the owl’s bowels.
1932		D.L. Sayers Have His Carcase 195: ‘Ain’t she the snail’s ankles?’ asked Mr. da Soto, admiringly.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 145: He thinks Pancho Villa is the bee’s knees.
1994		(con. 1960s) G. Byrne Pictures in my Head 7: All the neighbours are out for a gawk at my brother and they all think he’s the bee’s knees.
1999		Indep. Mag. 28 Aug. 6: I thought I’d look like the bee’s knees in white.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 82: Fucking loves our Gerrard, he does. Thinks he’s the bee’s knees.
2010		S. Mayberry Her Best Friend 174: That’s how I feel. I think you're the bee’s knees. The cat’s pajamas. The ant’s pants.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] One minute I’m an intimidating jerk, the next I’m the bee’s knees.
2017		V. McDermid Insidious Intent (2018) 219: ‘She thought he were the bee’s knees’.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘[H]e thinks they’re the bee’s knees or something’.

2. of things, the best, the superlative.

1910		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 9 Aug. [synd. strip] Bring me a plate of bee’s knees.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 10/4: Lyn. A., the Bee King, is talking of selling ‘Bees knees’ and ‘Ants whiskers’ at the Continental.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 28 Apr. 17/4: bees knees – Peachy, very nice. Sometimes known as ‘The Berries’.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 235: Spence thinks my scheme is the gnat’s elbow.
1925		Wash. Post 25 Jan. SM7: No noon hour on the college campus or in the office lunchroom would be complete without the words: [...] ‘the bee’s knees,’ ‘the snake’s hips,’ ‘the elephant’s manicure,’ not to speak of the ‘tadpole’s teddies.’.
1926		F. Walter Pollock ‘The Current Expansion of Sl.’ in AS II:3 145: We find [...] ‘snake’s toenails’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 10: elephant’s fallen arches, snake’s hips, etc. Something excellent.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 55: [running head] Bee’s Knees Nothing To These.
1944		Post (Lanarks) 23 Apr. 6/2: The alligator’s adenoids, the bee’s knees, [...] the butterfly’s boots, the caterpillar’s kimono, the duck’s quack, eel’s hips, elephant’s eyebrows, gnat’s whistle [...] oyster’s ice skates, pig’s wings. They all mean top notch in Chatanooga!
1957		R.P. Smith ‘The Goofy Girls’ in Russell Permanent Playboy (1959) 140: ‘Was it ever an evening! I mean to tell you.’ ‘The bee’s knees,’ she’ll say, and giggle.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 276: I was put into a CID office and I took to it like a duck to water. I thought it was the bee’s knees.
1999		Indep. Mag. 4 Dec. 67: It’s the bee’s knees – I had a grin from ear to ear driving this.
2001		Parkinson & Green Cutting It Fine (ms.) 64: A new British sausage restaurant [...] it was going to be the bee’s knees, it was going to be the nuts.
2003		K. Greenwald WordWizard Inc. Feb. 🌐 Other sources list ‘[...] the gnat’s elbow, the elephant’s (fallen) arches, [...] the cuckoo’s chin, [...] the turtle’s neck’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 69: duck’s nuts, just the Very desirable, a variant of ‘the bee’s knees’. ANZ.
2006		D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 74: That were the bullock’s bollocks.
2007		Observer Mag. 30 Sept. 10: Whereas once a sneeze was something thought to displease [...] for an increasing amount of people it’s the bee’s knees.
2008		J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 52: ‘Hopped up [...] People still say that?’ ‘I do,’ said Dad. ‘How about twenty-three skidoo?’ [...] ‘Or the bee’s knees,’ Trixie said.