kew

See also: Kew

English

Etymology 1

Noun

kew (plural kews)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter Q.

   Alternative form: cue

   • 1908, Richard Cyril Byrne Haking, Staff Rides and Regimental Tours, London: Hugh Rees, page 305:

     The following telegram with explain this: "Your suggestion approved stop the troops proceeding to ex those to wye and zed and the detachment at kew must be completed to ten days rations."

   • 1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber:

     the pardonable confusion for which some blame the cudgel and more blame the soot but unthanks to which the pees with their caps awry are quite as often as not taken for kews with their tails in their or are quite as often as not taken for pews with their tails in their mouths

   • 2016, Michael Moorcock, The Condition of Muzak, Titan Publishing:

     "As usual I got me pees an' kews mixed up."

Etymology 2

Aphetic form of thank you.

Interjection

kew

1. (informal, uncommon) Clipping of thank you.
   • 2013, F. E. Higgins, A Tangle of Traitors (The Phenomenals; 1), London: Macmillan Children's Books, →ISBN, page 28:

     ‘Kew,’ she said politely, and then took off, expertly negotiating the narrow aisles between the stalls.

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “kew”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Northern Kurdish

Etymology

Compare Persian کبک (kabk, “partridge”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛw/

kew

Noun

kew m

1. partridge