queen

queen [kwēn]

n.

[ME quen < OE cwen: see QUEAN]

1. the wife of a king

2. a woman who rules over a monarchy in her own right; female sovereign

3. a woman foremost or judged to be foremost among others in certain attributes or accomplishments, as beauty, etc.

4. a place or thing regarded as the best or most beautiful of its kind

5. the fully developed, reproductive female in a colony of bees, ants, or termites

6. a playing card with a conventionalized picture of a queen on it

7. Slang a male homosexual, specif. one with pronounced feminine characteristics: term of contempt or derision

8. Chess the most powerful piece, permitted to move any number of unoccupied squares in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction

vt.

1. to make (a girl or woman) a queen

2. Chess to make a queen of (a pawn that has reached the opponent's end of the board): cf. PROMOTE (vt. 5)

vi.

to reign as queen

——————

queen it

to act like a queen; domineer

queendom

n.

queenhood

n.

queenlike

adj.