Library / English Dictionary

QUEEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Female cat

Synonyms:

queen; tabby

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

domestic cat; Felis catus; Felis domesticus; house cat (any domesticated member of the genus Felis)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "queen"):

queen bee (fertile egg-laying female bee)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

queen; queen mole rat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

naked mole rat (fetal-looking colonial rodent of East Africa; neither mole nor rat; they feed on tubers and have a social structure similar to that of honeybees and termites)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(chess) the most powerful piece

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

chess piece; chessman (any of 16 white and 16 black pieces used in playing the game of chess)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Derivation:

queen (become a queen)

queen (promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess)

Sense 5

Meaning:

One of four face cards in a deck bearing a picture of a queen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

court card; face card; picture card (one of the twelve cards in a deck bearing a picture of a face)

Holonyms ("queen" is a member of...):

deck; deck of cards; pack of cards (a pack of 52 playing cards)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Offensive term for a homosexual man

Synonyms:

fag; faggot; fagot; fairy; nance; pansy; poof; poove; pouf; queen; queer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

gay; homo; homophile; homosexual (someone who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex)

Domain usage:

depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A competitor who holds a preeminent position

Synonyms:

king; queen; world-beater

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

challenger; competition; competitor; contender; rival (the contestant you hope to defeat)

Sense 8

Meaning:

A female sovereign ruler

Synonyms:

female monarch; queen; queen regnant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

female aristocrat (a woman who is an aristocrat)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "queen"):

Queen of England (the sovereign ruler of England)

Instance hyponyms:

Cleopatra (beautiful and charismatic queen of Egypt; mistress of Julius Caesar and later of Mark Antony; killed herself to avoid capture by Octavian (69-30 BC))

Isabella; Isabella I; Isabella the Catholic; Queen Isabella (the queen of Castile whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain; they instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492 (1451-1504))

Liliuokalani; Lydia Kamekeha Paki Liliuokalani (queen of the Hawaiian islands (1838-1917))

Mary Queen of Scots; Mary Stuart (queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567; as a Catholic she was forced to abdicate in favor of her son and fled to England where she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I; when Catholic supporters plotted to put her on the English throne she was tried and executed for sedition (1542-1587))

Holonyms ("queen" is a member of...):

royal family; royal house; royal line; royalty (royal persons collectively)

Antonym:

king (a male sovereign; ruler of a kingdom)

Derivation:

queenly (having the rank of or resembling or befitting a queen)

Sense 9

Meaning:

The wife or widow of a king

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

female aristocrat (a woman who is an aristocrat)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "queen"):

queen regent (a queen who serves as ruler when the king cannot)

queen dowager (the widow of a king)

queen consort (the wife of a reigning king)

Instance hyponyms:

Anne Boleyn; Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I; was executed on a charge of adultery (1507-1536))

Catherine de Medicis (queen of France as the wife of Henry II and regent during the minority of her son Charles IX (1519-1589))

Eleanor of Aquitaine (queen of France as the wife of Louis VII; that marriage was annulled in 1152 and she then married Henry II and became Queen of England (1122-1204))

Esther ((Old Testament) a beautiful Jewess chosen by the king of Persia to be his queen; she stopped a plot to massacre all the Jews in Persia (an event celebrated by Jews as the feast of Purim))

Catherine Howard; Howard (Queen of England as the fifth wife of Henry VIII who was accused of adultery and executed (1520-1542))

Jezebel (wife of Ahab who was king of Israel; according to the Old Testament she was a cruel immoral queen who fostered the worship of Baal and tried to kill Elijah and other prophets of Israel (9th century BC))

Marie Antoinette (queen of France (as wife of Louis XVI) who was unpopular; her extravagance and opposition to reform contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy; she was guillotined along with her husband (1755-1793))

Nefertiti (queen of Egypt and wife of Akhenaton (14th century BC))

Catherine Parr; Parr (Queen of England as the 6th wife of Henry VIII (1512-1548))

Jane Seymour; Seymour (Queen of England as the third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI (1509-1537))

Holonyms ("queen" is a member of...):

royal family; royal house; royal line; royalty (royal persons collectively)

Derivation:

queenly (having the rank of or resembling or befitting a queen)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Something personified as a woman who is considered the best or most important of her kind

Example:

the queen of ocean liners

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queen" is a kind of...):

personification (a person who represents an abstract quality)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become a queen

Example:

her pawn queened

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "queen" is one way to...):

promote (be changed for a superior chess or checker piece)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

queen ((chess) the most powerful piece)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Promote to a queen, as of a pawn in chess

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "queen" is one way to...):

promote (change a pawn for a better piece by advancing it to the eighth row, or change a checker piece for a more valuable piece by moving it to the row closest to your opponent)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

queen ((chess) the most powerful piece)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I never saw a more splendid scene: the ladies were magnificently dressed; most of them—at least most of the younger ones—looked handsome; but Miss Ingram was certainly the queen.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Once a year, honeybees, led by a queen, leave their nests in droves to find a new home.

(Bees Help Researchers Confirm Theory about Maintaining Protective Clumps under Tough Conditions, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

And straightway that coarse, swollen woman became a queen—the grandest, haughtiest queen that you could dream of—and she turned upon us with such words of fire, such lightning eyes and sweeping of her white hand, that she held us spellbound in our chairs.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The memory of that unfortunate king and his companions, the amiable Falkland, the insolent Goring, his queen, and son, gave a peculiar interest to every part of the city which they might be supposed to have inhabited.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She had never been tormented by womanhood, and she had lived in a dreamland of Tennysonian poesy, dense even to the full significance of that delicate master's delicate allusions to the grossnesses that intrude upon the relations of queens and knights.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then the queen was very much frightened; for she knew that the glass always spoke the truth, and was sure that the servant had betrayed her.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

This suggests Delftia may play a part in early queen mortality.

(Species Shifts in the Honey Bee Microbiome Differ with Age and Hive Role, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

No person dined with the queen but the two princesses royal, the eldest sixteen years old, and the younger at that time thirteen and a month.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The fairy queen's yellow curls reminded her of Amy, and between the acts she amused herself with wondering what her sister would do to make her 'sorry for it'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Did I not tell you how quick and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)