duke
[ dook, dyook ]
/ duk, dyuk /
noun
(in Continental Europe) the male ruler of a duchy; the sovereign of a small state.
a British nobleman holding the highest hereditary title outside the royal family, ranking immediately below a prince and above a marquis; a member of the highest rank of the British peerage.
a nobleman of corresponding rank in certain other countries.
a cultivated hybrid of the sweet and sour cherry.
dukes, Slang. fists; hands: Put up your dukes.
verb (used with object), duked, duk·ing.
Slang. to hit or thrash with the fists (sometimes followed by out): He duked me because he said I had insulted him. The bully said he was going to duke out anyone who disagreed.
RELATED CONTENT
How Do You Write In The Subjunctive Mood?The subjunctive mood is a way of talking about unreal or conditional situations. You can also use it to describe desires, wishes, needs, or intentions. You’ll often see it as the format for idioms and expressions. Unreal Situations The most common use of the subjunctive mood to express imaginary or hypothetical situations. It’s often used in if clauses. To show the subjunctive mood, you should …
Learn The Strange Link Between The Letters C And GCan you imagine a world in which the sounds of G and C were both represented by the letter C? Try to imacine it. Believe it or not, for much of their history, the sounds of C and G were represented by the same symbol. Eventually, however, both sounds received their own differentiated symbols. Both G and C have their origin in the Phoenician letter gimel, …
RELATED WORDS
aristocrat, king, monarch, emperor, czar, sultan, shah, patrician, slug, count, gentleman, royalty, peer, lord, lady, prince, empress, archduchess, archduke, countess
Nearby words
- duit,
- duka,
- dukakis,
- dukas,
- dukas, paul,
- duked up,
- dukedom,
- dukes,
- dukes classification,
- dukes disease
Idioms
duke it out, to fight, especially with the fists; do battle: The adversaries were prepared to duke it out in the alley.
Origin of duke
1100–50; Middle English duke, duc, late Old English duc < Old French duc, dus, dux < Medieval Latin dux hereditary ruler of a small state, Latin: leader; see dux; dukes “fists” of unclear derivation and perhaps of distinct orig.
Duke
[ dook, dyook ]
/ duk, dyuk /
noun
Benjamin Newton,1855–1929, and his brother, James Buchanan, 1856–1925, U.S. industrialists.
a male given name.
Wayne
[ weyn ]
/ weɪn /
noun
AnthonyMad Anthony, 1745–96, American Revolutionary War general.
JohnMarion Michael MorrisonDuke, 1907–79, U.S. film actor.
a township in N New Jersey.
a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit.
a male given name: from an Old English word meaning “wagonmaker.”
Ellington
[ el-ing-tuh n ]
/ ˈɛl ɪŋ tən /
noun
Edward KennedyDuke, 1899–1974, U.S. jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for duke
duke
/ (djuːk) /
noun
a nobleman of high rank: in the British Isles standing above the other grades of the nobility
the prince or ruler of a small principality or duchy
Word Origin for duke
C12: from Old French duc, from Latin dux leader
Ellington
/ (ˈɛlɪŋtən) /
noun
Duke, nickname of Edward Kennedy Ellington. 1899–1974, US jazz composer, pianist, and conductor, famous for such works as "Mood Indigo" and "Creole Love Call"
Wayne
/ (weɪn) /
noun
John, real name Marion Michael Morrison. 1907–79, US film actor, noted esp for his many Westerns, which include Stagecoach (1939), The Alamo (1960), and True Grit (1969), for which he won an Oscar
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