quean

[kween]

noun

1. Archaic.,  an overly forward, impudent woman; shrew; hussy.

2. Archaic.,  a prostitute.

3. British Dialect.,  Sometimes quine a girl or young woman, especially a robust one.

quean

/ kwiːn /

noun

1. archaic

   1. a boisterous, impudent, or disreputable woman

   2. a prostitute; whore

2. a young unmarried woman or girl

Other Word Forms

• queanish adjective
• queanlike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of quean¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English quene, Old English cwene; cognate with Middle Dutch quene, kone, Old Saxon, Old High German quena, Gothic qino, from unattested Germanic kwenōn-; akin to Old English cwēn “woman, queen” ( queen )

Word History and Origins

Origin of quean¹

Old English cwene; related to Old Saxon, Old High German quena, Gothic qino, Old Norse kona, Greek gunē woman. Compare _queen

Example Sentences

“Like, we should be able to wear leggings without feeling like it’s a problem because guys will be staring at us,” student Quean Foster told a local NBC News affiliate.

From Washington Times

While the author of the “Anatomy of Melancholy” is still more unkind, for he says— “A filthy knave, a deformed quean, a crooked carcass, a maukin, a witch, a rotten post, a hedge-stake may be so set out and tricked up, that it shall make a fair show, as much enamour as the rest.”—Part iii. sect.

From Project Gutenberg

Deil a wig has a provost of Fairport worn sin’ auld Provost Jervie’s time—and he had a quean of a servant-lass that dressed it hersel’, wi’ the doup o’ a candle and a dredging box.

From Project Gutenberg

For the boatmen had scarce told us the matter, and that it was a man and a woman for stealing glazed windows out of housen, and that the man was hanged at daybreak, and the quean to be drowned, when lo; they did fling her off the bridge, and fell in the water not far from us.

From Project Gutenberg

There is many a quean in it, fairer than I twice told, and not spoiled with weeping.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• tramp 
• whore