queen
//kwiːn//
Forms
- Plural
- queens
- present (v1)
- queen
- past (v2)
- queened
- past participle (v3)
- queened
- present participle
- queening
- 3rd person singular
- queens
Definitions
1.The wife, consort, or widow of a king.
- The divorced king was looking for a new queen.
2.A female monarch.
3.A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
- Always look after that girl, doc. She's a queen!
- My mother was queen of the St. Patrick's Day parade when she was 19.
- When I find my queen, we’re having a whole tribe like our grandparents used to swing it back in the day.
4.Something regarded as the greatest of its kind or as having pre-eminence or power comparable to that of a queen over a given area.
- Thare saw I May, of myrthfull monethis quene.
1.To make a queen or (figuratively) to give the status of a queen.
- This dreame of mine / Being now awake, Ile Queene it no inch farther, / But milke my Ewes, and weepe.
2.To promote a pawn to a queen.
3.To be the queen bee of a colony.
- The nucleus should not be queened by a queen from any of the parent colonies.
- They have all been queened by imported stock, or the best of home-bred mothers.
4.To provide with a new queen bee.
- Sealed cells with about to emerge queens are used for queening the divisions.
- If such a queen is immediately allowed to run through the entrance of a queenless colony, the queening is usually successful.
- In queening his apiary, he aims to keep about half of the queens of the current season's rearing, and the other of the summer preceding.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2238
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“wife, woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”).