Wiktionary

queue

See also: Queue

English

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WOTD – 28 August 2008

Etymology

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From Middle English queue, quew, qwew, couwe, from Anglo-Norman queue, keu and Old French cöe, cue, coe (“tail”), from Vulgar Latin cōda, from Latin cauda. See also Middle French queu, cueue. Doublet of coda.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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queue (plural queues)

  1. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, less common in North America) A line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back). [from 19th c.]
    • 1916, John Buchan, “Chapter 5”, in Greenmantle:
      I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue.
    • 2023 November 15, 'Industry Insider', “Outbreak of common sense”, in RAIL, number 996, page 68:
      In a report published on October 31, Transport Focus said that a number of train companies were unable to convince it about their ability to sell a full range of tickets, handle cash payments, and avoid excessive queues at ticket machines.
  2. A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.
  3. (computing) A data structure in which objects are added to one end, called the tail, and removed from the other, called the head (in the case of a FIFO queue). The term can also refer to a LIFO queue or stack where these ends coincide. [from 20th c.]
    • 2005, David Flanagan, Java in a Nutshell, p. 234,
      Queue implementations are commonly based on insertion order as in first-in, first-out (FIFO) queues or last-in, first-out queues (LIFO queues are also known as stacks).
  4. (heraldry) An animal's tail. [from 16th c.]
    • 1863, Charles Boutell, A Manual of Heraldry, page 369:
      HESSE: Az., a lion, queue fourchée, rampt., barry of ten, arg. and gu., crowned, or, and holding in his dexter paw a sword, ppr., hilt and pommel, gold.
  5. (now historical) A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China. [from 18th c.]
    • 1889, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter XIX, in Micah Clarke: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co […], →OCLC:
      […] , there were seated astraddle the whole hundred of the baronet's musqueteers, each engaged in plaiting into a queue the hair of the man who sat in front of him.
    • 1912, Herbert Allen Giles, China and the Manchus, Chapter III — Shun Chih:
      A large number of loyal officials, rather than shave the front part of the head and wear the Manchu queue, voluntarily shaved the whole head, […]
    • 1967, William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Vintage, published 2004, page 176:
      Caparisoned for a week in purple velvet knee-length pantaloons, a red silk jacket with buckles of shiny brass, and a white goat's-hair wig which culminated behind in a saucy queue, I must have presented an exotic sight […]

Synonyms

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  • (line of people, vehicles, etc): line (US), lineup (Canada)

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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queue (third-person singular simple present queues, present participle queueing or queuing, simple past and past participle queued)

  1. (intransitive) To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.
    • 1959 April, B. Perren, “The Essex Coast Branches of the Great Eastern Line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 189:
      Although there is a spacious circulating area beyond the platforms at Clacton, there is severe overcrowding on peak Saturdays; at times of pressure passengers have to queue out into the street [...]
  2. (intransitive) To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.
  3. (computing, transitive) To add to a queue data structure.
  4. To fasten the hair into a queue.
    • 1968, Francis Russell, The American Heritage History of the Making of the Nation:
      Though Monroe the man has become a vague anachronistic figure in knee breeches and with queued, powdered hair, his name is perpetuated in the Monroe Doctrine, evoked by him as a temporary response to an immediate crisis.
    • 1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
      The sons, in short square skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an eel skin for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the country as potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair.

Synonyms

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  • (place itself at the end of a queue): join a queue, join the queue, line up

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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French

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle French queu, cueue, from Old French cue, coe, from Vulgar Latin cōda, variant of Latin cauda. Doublet of coda.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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queue f (plural queues)

  1. tail
  2. queue, line
    Synonym: file d’attente
  3. (snooker) cue
  4. (vulgar) cock, dick (penis)
    Synonym: bite

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Danish: kø
  • → Dutch: keu
  • → English: queue, cue
  • → German: Queue
  • → Norwegian: kø
  • → Swedish: kö

Further reading

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Old French

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Noun

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queue oblique singular, f (oblique plural queues, nominative singular queue, nominative plural queues)

  1. Alternative form of cue
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