king

Less common meanings

6. 6
   chessnouncountable

   The principal chess piece, which players try to threaten with unavoidable capture to win by checkmate.

   He castled early to tuck his king safely behind a wall of pawns.

   With her king cornered, she had no escape from checkmate.

   Note

   The one piece the whole game turns on, though it is never actually taken. The FIDE Laws of Chess define the objective as putting the opponent's king under attack so that no legal move remains, which is checkmate. It moves one square in any direction and is usually the tallest piece, crowned with a cross. Players speak of exposing, sheltering or castling the king. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • The king is never legally captured. handbook.fide.com
   • FIDE defines the objective as attacking the opponent's king with no legal response remaining, achieving checkmate. handbook.fide.com
   • The king's ordinary move is one square horizontally, vertically or diagonally. en.wikipedia.org
   • The king is usually the tallest chess piece. en.wikipedia.org
   • The king conventionally has a cross on top in the standard Staunton design. en.wikipedia.org
7. 7
   nouncountable

   A checkers piece that has reached the farthest row and been crowned, gaining greater freedom of movement.

   Her last king was trapped in the corner, so she gave up the game.

   A king can move backward, unlike an ordinary checker.

   Note

   A promoted piece in a game called checkers in the US and draughts in Britain. Reaching the far row earns the crown, shown either by turning the piece upside down or by stacking a second checker on top, and from then on it may move and capture backward as well as forward. The act of promotion has its own verb, to king a piece. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • The game is called checkers in American English and draughts in British English. en.wikipedia.org
   • Reaching the farthest row promotes a piece to a king. nccheckers.org
   • Kings can be distinguished by stacking pieces or turning over a piece marked with a crown. en.wikipedia.org
   • A king can move and capture backward as well as forward. nccheckers.org
   • The verb king can describe promoting a checkers piece. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   promote (checkers)verbtransitive

   To promote a checkers piece that has reached the opposite side, allowing it to move backward as well as forward.

   Grandpa finally kinged his last man, and two turns later he had cleared my side of the board.

   If you let that checker reach your back row, your opponent gets to king it.

   UsageOften used in the passive (get kinged) or in the phrase King me!

   Similarcrown

   Note

   Bertram Vivian Bowden's Faster Than Thought (1953) describes an early game-playing machine that only postponed its opponent's kinging. In Rick DeMarinis's The Burning Women of Far Cry (1986), a player tries to corner an opponent's piece that she wants "to get kinged." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Faster Than Thought was edited by Bertram Vivian Bowden and first published in 1953. archive.org
   • The book describes an early game-playing machine whose sacrifices merely postponed its opponent's kinging. archive.org
   • Rick DeMarinis wrote The Burning Women of Far Cry. en.wikipedia.org
9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To crown someone king; to raise a person to the office of king.

   Similarcrown, enthrone

   Oppositedepose, dethrone

   Note

   The verb of coronation, which survives mainly as the noun kinging in literary criticism. A. R. Braunmuller's introduction to his edition of Macbeth traces "the kinging and unkinging of Macbeth," and a 1982 South Atlantic Review essay makes his kinging the business of the play's first part. Paired with unkinging, it gives critics a compact way to name a rise and fall. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • A. R. Braunmuller's introduction to his edition of Macbeth uses the quoted phrase. en.wiktionary.org
   • A 1982 South Atlantic Review essay describes Macbeth's kinging as the business of the play's first part. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    ruleverbtransitive or intransitive

    To rule over a place or people as king, carrying out a king's duties.

    For all his royal splendor, he had no talent for kinging.

    Once on the throne, he found that kinging meant far more paperwork than glory.

    Similarrule, reign

    Note

    Ruling as a verb, now chiefly met in Shakespeare. In Henry V, England "is so idly king'd," meaning governed by a careless ruler. The passive puts the realm in subject position and the king offstage, and the adverb carries the judgment. Modern writers who use it are usually echoing that older, poetic voice. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • In Henry V, the Dauphin describes England as "is so idly king'd," criticizing its government under Henry. shakespeare.mit.edu
11. 11
    admired mannounslangcountable

    An admired or respected man; often used as a form of address to praise or encourage him.

    "I finally finished my first marathon!" "Let's go, king!"

    My neighbor shoveled the whole block's sidewalks this morning, and honestly, he's a king.

    UsageOften as a friendly address after a cheer or thanks: Let's go, king! Thanks, king!

    Similarlegend, hero

    Note

    Casual praise from online and spoken talk, not something for formal writing. As a form of address it usually follows a cheer, thanks or a compliment (let's go, king; thanks, king), and it is meant warmly, with no hint of rank. Said of someone, as in he's a king, it rewards a kind or impressive act.

12. 12
    boss aroundverb

    To assume or pretend superiority over others; to lord it over them.

    He tends to king it over anyone he sees as less experienced.

    Once promoted, she kinged it over her former colleagues without shame.

    UsageUsed as king it over someone, like lord it over. It is disapproving.

    Similarlord

13. 13
    perform dragverbintransitive

    To take the stage as a drag king, dressing for and performing the role.

    Several first-timers tried kinging at the open-mic drag night.

    She hopes to king at the city's big Pride show next summer.

    Note

    A verb for performing as a drag king, used mostly as the noun kinging. It belongs to performance and to gender scholarship, where Audrey Yue's 2008 study writes of "kinging in postcolonial Australia" as a site of diasporic female masculinity. Among performers it works like a plain trade word, the counterpart of drag queens' talk of performing in drag. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The study appeared in 2008. press.uillinois.edu
    • Audrey Yue wrote the chapter about Asian drag kings, postcolonial female masculinity, and hybrid sexuality in Australia. jstor.org
    • Yue uses the exact phrase quoted and connects kinging in Australia with diasporic female masculinities. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    center pinnouncountable

    In bowling games, the pin or skittle placed at the center of the arrangement.

    A clean hit on the king sent the surrounding pins flying.

    Skilled players target the king to scatter as many pins as possible.

    Note

    This is one of several game pieces named king for their place of honor, alongside the chess piece and the crowned checker. John Henry Walsh's Manual of British Rural Sports describes it in knockemdowns and bowls. These are ten-pin games in which the middle pin is called the king and the ball must touch the ground before it reaches the frame. Like a name, it takes the definite article: the king. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Chess has a piece called the king. en.wikipedia.org
    • A crowned checker is called a king. en.wikipedia.org
    • John Henry Walsh wrote Manual of British Rural Sports. books.google.com
    • Walsh describes knockemdowns and bowls as using ten pins, with the central pin called the king and the ball grounded before reaching the frame. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    big rolling papernounslangUKcountable

    A king-size cigarette rolling paper.

    She always rolls with a king because the standard papers feel too short.

    The corner shop had run out of kings, so he rolled his joint with two regular papers stuck together.

    Note

    British slang for a king skin, the long rolling paper. It is casual, as in a shop-counter "have you got kings?" Outside that setting the word would read as royal, so it belongs in talk among people who already know what is being rolled. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • 'King' is British slang for a king skin. en.wiktionary.org
    • A king skin is a long rolling paper. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    nouncountable

    A male dragonfly; a drake.
17. 17
    noun

    In graph theory, a vertex that can reach every other vertex by a directed path of length at most two.