Queue
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /kjuË/
- Rhymes: -uË
Origin
From Anglo-Norman queue, keu et al. and Middle French queu, cueue et al., from Latin cauda.
Full definition of queue
Noun
queue
(plural queues)- (heraldry) An animal's tail. from 16th c.
- 1863, Charles Boutell, A Manual of Heraldry, p. 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.
- (now historical) A men's hairstyle whose primary attribute is a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China. from 18th c.
- 1889, Arthur Conan Doyle, Micah Clarke, :..., 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, :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 2004, p. 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 ....
- A line of people, vehicles or other objects, in which 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, Greenmantle, ,I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue.
- A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.
- (computing) A data structure in which objects are added to one end, called the tail, and removed from the other, called the head (- 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).
Synonyms
- (Line of people, vehicles, etc) line North America
Related terms
- (heraldry) quevée
Verb
- (British) To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.
- (British) To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.
- (computing) To add to a queue data structure.
- To fasten the hair into a queue.
- 1968, Francis Russell, The American Heritage History of the Making of the NationThough 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 HollowThe 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.