QUEEN


Meaning of QUEEN in English

I. ˈkwēn noun

Etymology: Middle English quene, from Old English cwēn woman, wife, queen; akin to Gothic qens wife, Greek gynē woman, Sanskrit jani

Date: before 12th century

1.

a. : the wife or widow of a king

b. : the wife or widow of a tribal chief

2.

a. : a female monarch

b. : a female chieftain

3.

a. : a woman eminent in rank, power, or attractions

a movie queen

b. : a goddess or a thing personified as female and having supremacy in a specified realm

c. : an attractive girl or woman ; especially : a beauty contest winner

4. : the most privileged piece of each color in a set of chessmen having the power to move in any direction across any number of unoccupied squares

5. : a playing card marked with a stylized figure of a queen

6. : the fertile fully developed female of social bees, ants, and termites whose function is to lay eggs

7. : a mature female cat kept especially for breeding

8. often disparaging : a male homosexual ; especially : an effeminate one

II. verb

Date: 1611

intransitive verb

1. : to act like a queen ; especially : to put on airs — usually used with it

queen s it over her friends

2. : to become a queen in chess

the pawn queen s

transitive verb

: to promote (a pawn) to a queen in chess

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate English vocabulary.      Энциклопедический словарь английского языка Merriam Webster.