queen Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs
  2. noun a female sovereign ruler
    female monarch; queen regnant.
  3. noun the wife or widow of a king
  4. noun something personified as a woman who is considered the best or most important of her kind
    • Paris is the queen of cities
    • the queen of ocean liners
  5. noun a competitor who holds a preeminent position
    world-beater; king.
  6. noun offensive term for an openly homosexual man
    poove; fairy; nance; fagot; pansy; poof; queer; pouf; faggot; fag.
  7. noun one of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a queen
  8. noun (chess) the most powerful piece
  9. noun an especially large mole rat and the only member of a colony of naked mole rats to bear offspring which are sired by only a few males
    queen mole rat.
  10. noun female cat
    tabby.
  11. verb promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess
  12. verb become a queen
    • her pawn queened

WordNet


Queen noun
Etymology
OE. quen, quene, queen, quean, AS. cwen wife, queen, woman; akin to OS. quan wife, woman, Icel. kvan wife, queen, Goth. qens. See Quean.
Definitions
  1. The wife of a king.
  2. A woman who is the sovereign of a kingdom; a female monarch; as, Elizabeth, queen of England; Mary, queen of Scots.
    In faith, and by the heaven's quene. Chaucer.
  3. A woman eminent in power or attractions; the highest of her kind; as, a queen in society; -- also used figuratively of cities, countries, etc. " This queen of cities." " Albion, queen of isles." Cowper.
  4. The fertile, or fully developed, female of social bees, ants, and termites.
Queen intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To act the part of a queen. Shak.
Queen intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Queened ; present participle & verbal noun Queening
Definitions
  1. (Chess.) To make a queen (or other piece, at the player's discretion) of by moving it to the eighth row; as, to queen a pawn.

Webster 1913