none of your beeswax

• none of your bee's wax, none of your bees' wax

Alteration of none of your business, to soften the force of the retort.[1]

none of your beeswax

1. A riposte to badgering questioning, expressing a refusal to answer, and an insistence that the questioner cease prying any further.
   • 1950, Beverly Cleary, Henry Huggins, page 21:

     “Whatcha got in that bag?” asked Scooter.
     “None of your beeswax,” answered Henry.

   • 1977, Albert Ramsdell Gurney, Children, page 25:

     BARBARA. That’s for me to know.
     RANDY. Come on. Who?
     BARBARA. None of your beeswax.

   • 1996, Stephen King, The Green Mile, page 74:

     “You can ask, but since it's really none of your beeswax, I think I'll keep my mouth shut on that score.”

   • 2003, Augusten Burroughs, Running With Scissors: A Memoir, page 194:

     “We were just discussing your love life. Or lack thereof.”
     “My love life is none of your beeswax,” she huffed.

• mind your own beeswax