queen

Less common meanings

11. 11
    Virgin Marynouncountable

    The Virgin Mary, especially as honored in titles such as Queen of Heaven or Queen of Glory.

    The cathedral's altar was dedicated to the Queen of Heaven.

    In May, the children crowned a statue of Mary as Queen of the May.

    Note

    A devotional title rather than a description, and it lives in set phrases: Queen of Heaven, Queen of Glory. Joseph Swetnam, writing as Thomas Tell-Troth in 1615, stretches the pattern to "Queen of all womankind the Virgin Mary." Outside such phrases, Christian writers call her the Madonna, the Blessed Virgin or the Mother of God. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Joseph Swetnam published the relevant work in 1615 under the pseudonym Thomas Tell-Troth. en.wikipedia.org
    • Swetnam calls Mary Queen of all womankind; the quotation modernizes spelling and punctuation. pages.uoregon.edu
12. 12
    promote pawnverbtransitive

    To promote a pawn to a queen, typically when it advances to the opponent's back rank.

    He advanced the pawn and chose to queen it for maximum power.

    She queened her pawn and put his king in check.

    UsageThe pawn can be the object or the subject: queen a pawn, or the pawn queens.

    Similarpromote

    Note

    The verb takes the pawn as its subject as readily as the player. Pawns are stopped "from queening," and a side "queens first, or queens with check," in Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess Endings. The word matters most in endgames where both sides race to promote. The history lies with the chess piece. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Yasser Seirawan wrote Winning Chess Endings. simonandschuster.com
    • Winning Chess Endings contains both quoted expressions, referring to competing pawn promotions. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    gay man (insult)nounderogatorycountable

    Slang for a gay man, especially one regarded as effeminate, often derogatory from outsiders but used warmly within gay culture.

    They mocked the new recruit, calling him a queen behind his back.

    Old letters reveal how often he was dismissed as a queen by his rivals.

    Similarfairy, pansy, sissy, poof

    Note

    Register is everything with this sense. From outsiders it has long been an insult, but use within the community can be warm. Bebe Scarpi, writing in Gay in 1974, praises Sylvia as "one gutsy queen," and David Bowie's "Queen Bitch" (1971) uses it from inside the scene. Compare the drag performer. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Bebe Scarpi wrote in Gay in 1974. en.wiktionary.org
    • Scarpi praises Sylvia using the exact words “one gutsy queen.” en.wiktionary.org
    • David Bowie's song “Queen Bitch” was first released in 1971. en.wikipedia.org
    • The song presents the word from within a gay/drag milieu; this is an interpretation supported by its narrative viewpoint. en.wikipedia.org
14. 14
    put on throneverbtransitive

    To make someone a queen, or figuratively to grant someone the status of a queen.

    Similarcrown, enthrone

    Oppositedethrone, depose

    Note

    The verb of crowning, literal or figurative. It takes the woman as its object. Perdita's "I'll queen it no inch farther" in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale is a different use, the idiom queen it, to play the queen. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The literal or figurative sense of making someone a queen is transitive, with the person made queen as its object. en.wiktionary.org
    • Perdita says “I'll queen it no inch farther” in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • The quoted wording is exact. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • The quotation illustrates the separate idiom queen it, meaning to play or behave like a queen. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    female catnouncountable

    An adult female cat that is able to breed.

    The breeder kept her best queen for the next litter.

    A healthy queen can produce two or three litters in a single year.

    UsageA breeders' word; for a pet, female cat is the ordinary phrase.

    Oppositetom

    Note

    Cat breeders' vocabulary, paired with stud. A queen goes to the stud and comes home to be kept shut up "until all restlessness has left her," as Pacific Fancier advised in 1906. The word belongs to pedigree and cattery talk. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Pacific Fancier published this advice in 1906. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quotation accurately describes keeping a queen confined after her return from the stud. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    head the hiveverbtransitive

    To serve as the queen bee of a colony, the female that lays nearly all of its eggs.

    The nucleus should not be queened by a queen from any of the parent colonies.

    1957, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (India), The Wealth of India

    They have all been queened by imported stock, or the best of home-bred mothers.

    1882, E. L. Briggs, “Development of ‘The Coming Bee’”

    Similarhead, lead, rule

    Note

    Beekeepers use this verb mostly in the passive. A hive is "queened by imported stock," and a nucleus "should not be queened by a queen from any of the parent colonies." That passive blurs it with supplying a new queen, since a colony queened by a bee has also been given one. The difference lies in whether the bee or the beekeeper is the agent. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The quoted phrase “queened by imported stock” is attested. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quotation about queening a nucleus accurately reproduces the source. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    supply a hiveverbtransitive

    To supply a bee colony with a new queen bee.

    Beekeepers often queen a struggling hive to boost its numbers.

    He queened the colony with a mated queen bought from a breeder.

    Oppositedequeen

    Note

    The beekeeper's verb, whose noun queening names the whole operation: "the queening is usually successful" when the right kind of queen is let straight in. A colony without one is queenless, and the opposite operation is to dequeen it. Typical objects are colonies, divisions and whole apiaries. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The quoted wording is attested. en.wiktionary.org
    • Direct introduction requires suitable conditions; a strange queen can be treated as an intruder. The quotation does not justify this generalization. somersetbeekeepers.org.uk
    • A colony without a queen is queenless. en.wiktionary.org
    • To dequeen a colony is to remove its queen. en.wiktionary.org
18. 18
    nouncountable

    In the game of carrom, the red disk that is the most valuable piece.

    She pocketed the queen early but failed to cover it.

    Sinking the queen is worth more than any other piece on the board.

19. 19
    sex actverbslangvulgartransitive

    To receive oral sex by sitting on someone's face, usually with one's knees on either side of their head.

    She queened her partner slowly, watching his reactions.

    He asked her to queen him as part of their scene.

    Similarface-sit

    Note

    Sexual slang used in BDSM, usually describing a woman, and framed as a posture of dominance. Lorelei's The Mistress Manual: The Good Girl's Guide to Female Dominance recommends it to reverse who feels in charge. Face-sit is the plainer equivalent. This sense is strictly erotic, and in any other setting it will be misread or give offense. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The practice is associated with dominance. en.wikipedia.org
    • Lorelei wrote The Mistress Manual: The Good Girl's Guide to Female Dominance. archive.org
    • The publisher's description identifies the original self-published version as 1994. Wiktionary's 1996 citation is not the first-publication date. idl.overdrive.com
    • The book recommends queening to change which partner feels in charge. en.wiktionary.org
    • Face-sit is an equivalent verb. en.wiktionary.org
    • This sense is erotic, but queen also has established nonsexual verb senses, including promoting a pawn in chess. en.wiktionary.org
20. 20
    verbobsoleteintransitive

    To act the part of a queen; to behave in a haughty, imperious manner.

    Note

    An obsolete verb whose living trace is the idiom queen it, with an empty it, as in lord it: to put on royal airs over others. The plain intransitive she queened is no longer said. To express the idea today, say she queened it over the household, or simply that she behaved imperiously. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The bare intransitive sense meaning to behave imperiously is labelled obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
    • Queen it means to behave like a queen or act superior. en.wiktionary.org
    • The it in queen it is a placeholder. en.wiktionary.org
    • Lord it is a parallel expression. en.wiktionary.org
21. 21
    roof postnounobsoleteabbreviationellipsis

    Short for queen post: either of a pair of upright timbers in a roof truss, set between the tie beam and the rafters.

    Note

    Builders once shortened queen post the way they shortened king post. Skyring's Builder's Prices (1811) lists a truss framed "with Kings and Queens." The pairing reflects the system, since a queen-post truss spans longer openings than a king-post truss. The clipped form is obsolete, so write queen post in full in any modern description of a roof truss. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Builders used queen and king as shortened forms of queen post and king post. en.wiktionary.org
    • The comparison concerns complete trusses: a queen-post truss can span longer openings than a king-post truss. A queen post is a member within the truss. en.wikipedia.org
22. 22
    nounobsolete

    The lemon sole, a kind of flatfish.

    Note

    An old common name for the fish that has dropped out of use. If you meet it in older writing on fish or markets, read it as lemon sole. That is the name to use now, since nothing in current English calls this fish a queen. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • In historical writing about fish, queen can mean lemon sole. plymsea.ac.uk
23. 23
    nounNorth Americancountablenorth american

    A bed or mattress of the size that falls between a full (or double) and a king.

    The guest room fits a queen, a dresser, and not much else.

    She found a memory-foam queen on sale for half price.

    UsageShort for queen-size bed or queen-size mattress.

    Note

    This is chiefly North American shorthand, clipped from queen-size bed or queen-size mattress. Used alone it names the bed itself (we finally bought a queen). Placed before another noun it sizes anything made to fit one, which is the adjective at work: queen sheets, a queen comforter, a queen frame. Its neighbors on the same scale are full, double and king. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The bed-size noun is shortened from queen-size bed or queen-size mattress. en.wiktionary.org
    • Full and double name the same standard North American size, below queen; king is above queen. en.wikipedia.org
24. 24
    noun

    An orange-brown American butterfly, Danaus gilippus, with black wing borders and white spots, closely related to the monarch.
25. 25
    noun

    A small edible scallop (Aequipecten opercularis) of the northeastern Atlantic.
26. 26
    noun

    Short for queen olive: a large, fleshy green olive, often pitted and stuffed, eaten as a snack or used in cocktails.
27. 27
    nounrare

    A queen apple: one of a class of apples that ripen early and have red flesh.
28. 28
    noun

    A large size of roofing slate.