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
Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here's to the widow of fifty; Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean, And here's to the housewife that's thrifty.
From Familiar Quotations by Bartlett, John
Thou talkest like a foolish quean that has been frightened by the fluttering of her own poultry.
From The Headsman The Abbaye des Vignerons by Cooper, James Fenimore
Yet they knew us all the while, in their hearts, for what we are —Worst couple, rogue and quean, unhanged—search near and far!
From Browning's England A Study in English Influences in Browning by Clarke, Helen Archibald
Gulbeyaz was an empress, but had been Perhaps as wretched if a peasants quean.
From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 6 by Coleridge, Ernest Hartley
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.
