quean
Americannoun
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Archaic. an overly forward, impudent woman; shrew; hussy.
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Archaic. a prostitute.
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British Dialect. Sometimes quine a girl or young woman, especially a robust one.
noun
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archaic
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a boisterous, impudent, or disreputable woman
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a prostitute; whore
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a young unmarried woman or girl
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of quean
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” ( see queen)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Oh, she was a canty quean, An' weel could dance the Hieland walloch!
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume I. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century by Rogers, Charles
For queen is the phonetic equivalent of AS. cwén, Goth. kwēns, whereas quean represents AS. cwĕne, Goth. kwĭno.
From A Concise Dictionary of Middle English From A.D. 1150 to 1580 by Mayhew, A. L. (Anthony Lawson)
She could coax you to the buying like a Cumnock quean, and fleece you in the selling like the cadgers o' Kincardine.
From The House with the Green Shutters by Brown, George Douglas
"Whisky is gude eneugh for her," muttered Cuddie; "ane wadna hae thought that gude meal was sae scant amang them, when the quean threw sae muckle gude kail-brose scalding het about my lugs."
From Old Mortality, Volume 2. by Scott, Walter, Sir
Joseph was the only objector, and he appealed to Heathcliff against 'yon flaysome graceless quean, that's witched our lad wi' her bold een and her forrad ways.'
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 02 — Fiction by Mee, Arthur
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
