queen

queen

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of queen in English

English Online Dictionary. What means queen‎? What does queen mean?

English

Alternative forms

  • queene, quene, queyne (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (queen), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (woman), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (woman).

Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (queen), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (elderly woman)), Dutch kween (woman past child-bearing age), Swedish kvinna (woman), Norwegian kvinne (woman), Danish kvinde (woman), Icelandic kvon (wife), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, wife), Norwegian dialectal kvån (wife).

Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (woman; female serf, quean), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (queen), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (queen) (see Modern English regina). Doublet of quean and gyne.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kwiːn/, [kʰw̥iːn], enPR: kwēn
  • Rhymes: -iːn
  • Homophone: quean

Noun

queen (plural queens)

  1. The wife, consort, or widow of a king.
    Synonyms: queen consort, Regina
    Hypernym: royal
    Hyponyms: queen consort, queen dowager
    Holonym: royal family
    Coordinate terms: emperor, empress, king, prince, princess
  2. A female monarch.
    Synonyms: queen regnant, Regina
    Hypernyms: monarch, royal, sovereign
    Holonym: royal family
    Coordinate terms: emperor, empress, king, prince, princess
  3. A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
    Synonym: goddess
    1. (Christianity) The Virgin Mary (especially in formulations such as Queen of Heaven, Queen of Glory).
      Synonyms: (archaic) advocatrix, Blessed Virgin, Blessed Virgin Mary, (chiefly historical) Christotokos, lady, Madonna, Mother of God, Mother of Mercy, Our Lady, Our Lady of Sorrows, Queen of Heaven, Saint Mary, Star of the Sea, (chiefly Eastern Christianity) Theotokos, Virgin Mary
    2. An excellent woman.
    3. A woman pre-eminent in a particular group or field.
    4. (slang, originally US) An attractive woman; a female partner in a romantic relationship.
      Synonym: honey
  4. Something regarded as the greatest of its kind or as having pre-eminence or power comparable to that of a queen over a given area.
  5. Referring to one of several items used in tabletop games:
    1. A chess piece that, under contemporary rules, is the most powerful, able to move any number of spaces horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
      Synonyms: (slang, vulgar, offensive) bitch, (slang) dame, (slang, rare) lady, (slang) old lady, (slang, vulgar, offensive) whore
      Hypernyms: chess piece, chessman
      Holonym: chess set
      Coordinate terms: bishop, castle, king, knight, pawn, rook
    2. A playing card with a depiction of a queen on it, generally ranking next below the king and above the jack in a given suit.
      Synonyms: (vulgar, offensive, informal) bitch, (slang) cowgirl, (slang) girl, (slang) lady, (slang) mop squeezer
      Hypernyms: court card, face card
      Hyponym: Queen Bess
      Holonyms: deck of cards, pack of cards
      Coordinate terms: jack, king, knave
    3. A red disk that is the most valuable piece in the Asian game of carrom.
  6. A reproductive female insect in a hive, such as an ant, bee, termite or wasp.
    Synonym: (obsolete) king
    Hypernyms: bug, insect
    Hyponym: queen bee
  7. (obsolete) A type of flatfish, specifically the lemon sole.
  8. (rare) A queen apple.
    Hypernym: apple
  9. (originally UK) A queen scallop.
  10. (construction, obsolete) Ellipsis of queen post.
    Coordinate term: king
  11. (now chiefly historical) A type of large roofing slate.
  12. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A homosexual man, especially one regarded as effeminate.
    Synonyms: fag, faggot, fairy, fruit, Mary, nancy, Nancy Dawson, nancyboy, nelly, pansy, ponce, poof, poofter, shirtlifter, twink; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man, Thesaurus:male homosexual
    Hypernym: gay
  13. An adult female cat capable of breeding.
    Hypernym: cat
    Coordinate terms: tom, tomcat
  14. Ellipsis of queen olive.
  15. (LGBT, slang) Ellipsis of drag queen.
  16. (attributive, originally Canada, US) Pertaining to a queen-size bed or queen-size bedding.
    Synonyms: queen-size, queen-sized
  17. A monarch butterfly (Danaus spp., especially Danaus gilippus).

Usage notes

  • (homosexual man): The term can be either derogatory or a self-identification. (Compare nigger.)
  • (ellipsis of drag queen): Some of the people who were historically (in the late 1960s and 1970s) described as “queens” or “drag queens” or “street queens” are now sometimes considered transgender, especially when their gender identity is female or non-binary/genderqueer rather than male. Some people, like Sylvia Rivera, self-identified as both a “transgender person” and a “street queen”. Drag queens, too, can have any gender identity.

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

Verb

queen (third-person singular simple present queens, present participle queening, simple past and past participle queened)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To act the part of a queen; to behave imperiously; to queen it.
  2. (transitive) To make a queen or (figuratively) to give the status of a queen.
  3. (chess) To promote a pawn to a queen.
  4. (beekeeping) To be the queen bee of a colony.
  5. (beekeeping) To provide with a new queen bee.
    Antonym: dequeen
  6. (BDSM, slang, transitive, usually of a woman) To sit on a person’s face to receive oral sex, typically while straddling the person’s head.
    Synonyms: face-sit, king

Derived terms

  • queener
  • queening square
  • queening stool

Related terms

  • queen out

Translations

See also

  • facesitting
  • smothering

References

  • Kent Patterson (1971), “Checkschmuck! The Slang of the Chess Player”, in American Speech, volume 46, issue 3–4, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 231–236.
  • “queen, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
  • “queen”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  • Jonathon Green (2024), “queen n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams

  • quene

Middle English

Noun

queen

  1. Alternative form of quene (queen)

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English quene, from Old English cwēn, from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni.

Noun

queen

  1. queen

References

  • Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 96

Bookmark
share
WebDictionary.net is an Free English Dictionary containing information about the meaning, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, translations, etymology and more.

Related Words

Browse the English Dictionary

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

License

This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.