queen

[ kween ]
See synonyms for queen on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a female sovereign or monarch.

  2. the wife or consort of a king.

  1. a woman, or something personified as a woman, that is foremost or preeminent in any respect: a movie queen; a beauty queen; Athens, the queen of the Aegean.

    • Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a gay man, especially one who is flamboyantly campy or effeminate.: See Usage note at the current entry.

  2. a playing card bearing a picture of a queen.

  3. Chess. the most powerful piece of either color, moved across any number of empty squares in any direction.

  4. Entomology. a fertile female ant, bee, termite, or wasp.

  5. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter Q.

verb (used without object)
  1. to reign as queen.

  2. to behave in an imperious or pretentious manner (usually followed by it).

  1. Chess. to become promoted to a queen.

Origin of queen

1
First recorded before 900; Middle English quene, quen, Old English cwēn “woman, queen”; cognate with Old Saxon quān, Old Norse kvān, Gothic qēns, from unattested Germanic kwēni-; akin to Old Irish ben, Greek gynḗ woman, Russian zhená, Sanskrit jani “wife”

usage note For queen

The term queen is usually used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting when in reference to a gay man, especially one considered to be effeminate or flamboyant. However, within the gay community, it is sometimes used in a friendly, teasing, or facetious manner, and can also be a positive term of self-reference.

Other words from queen

  • queen·less, adjective
  • queen·like, adjective
  • un·der·queen, noun

Words Nearby queen

Other definitions for Queen (2 of 2)

Queen
[ kween ]

noun
  1. Ellery, joint pen name of Manfred Bennington Lee and Frederick Dannay.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use queen in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for queen (1 of 2)

queen

/ (kwiːn) /


noun
  1. a female sovereign who is the official ruler or head of state

  2. the wife or widow of a king

  1. a woman or a thing personified as a woman considered the best or most important of her kind: a beauty queen; the queen of ocean liners

  2. slang an effeminate male homosexual

    • the only fertile female in a colony of social insects, such as bees, ants, and termites, from the eggs of which the entire colony develops

    • (as modifier): a queen bee

  3. an adult female cat

  4. one of four playing cards in a pack, one for each suit, bearing the picture of a queen

  5. a chess piece, theoretically the most powerful piece, able to move in a straight line in any direction or diagonally, over any number of squares

verb
  1. chess to promote (a pawn) to a queen when it reaches the eighth rank

  2. (tr) to crown as queen

  1. (intr) informal (of a gay man) to flaunt one's homosexuality

  2. (intr) to reign as queen

  3. queen it (often foll by over) informal to behave in an overbearing manner

Origin of queen

1
Old English cwēn; related to Old Saxon quān wife, Old Norse kvæn, Gothic qēns wife

British Dictionary definitions for Queen (2 of 2)

Queen

/ (kwiːn) /


noun
  1. Ellery (ˈɛlərɪ). pseudonym of Frederic Dannay (1905–82) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–71), US co-authors of detective novels featuring a sleuth also called Ellery Queen

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012