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queen's shilling

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noun
  1. king's shilling.
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Origin of queen's shilling

First recorded in 1875–80
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for queen's shilling

queen's shilling

when the sovereign was male king's shilling

noun
  1. (until 1879) a shilling paid to new recruits to the British army
  2. take the queen's shilling British archaic to enlist in the army
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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