/ kjuː; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
1.
( BrE ) ( NAmE line ) a line of people, cars, etc. waiting for sth or to do sth :
the bus queue
I had to join a queue for the toilets.
How long were you in the queue ?
There was a queue of traffic waiting to turn right.
2.
( computing ) a list of items of data stored in a particular order
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IDIOMS
see jump verb
■ verb ( queu·ing or queue·ing )
1.
[ v ] ( BrE ) queue (up) (for sth) to wait in a line of people, vehicles, etc. in order to do sth, get sth or go somewhere :
We had to queue up for an hour for the tickets.
Queue here for taxis.
2.
( computing ) to add tasks to other tasks so that they are ready to be done in order; to come together to be done in order :
[ vn ]
The system queues the jobs before they are processed.
[also v ]
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PHRASAL VERBS
- be queuing up (for sth / to do sth)
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WORD ORIGIN
late 16th cent. (as a heraldic term denoting the tail of an animal): from French , based on Latin cauda tail. Compare with cue long stick used for playing billiards, pool and snooker . Sense 1 dates from the mid 19th cent.