queen
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kwēn
ipa: /kwiːn/
ipa: [kʰw̥iːn]
rhymes: -iːn
homophone: quean
Forms: form: queens
form: queening
form: queened
form: queened
form: queene
form: quene
form: queyne
Etymology: From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”).
Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Norwegian kvinne (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”). Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English Regina). Doublet of quean and gyne.
In reference to insects, by analogy with the obsolete term king, which it took over from starting in the 1600s, when they were discovered to be female.
Senses: glosses: To act the part of a queen; to behave imperiously; to queen it.
examples: text: This dreame of mine / Being now awake, Ile Queene it no inch farther, / But milke my Ewes, and weepe.
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 295, column 1:
glosses: To make a queen or (figuratively) to give the status of a queen.
examples: text: Neither King will be able to stop the opponent's pawns from queening, when the game should be a draw. In such cases, which side queens first, or queens with check, can make a crucial difference. In this case, White promotes his pawn first and is able to put this advantage to good use.
ref: 2003, Yasser Seirawan, Winning Chess Endings, London: Everyman Chess, →ISBN, page 39:
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: To promote a pawn to a queen.
examples: text: They have all been queened by imported stock, or the best of home-bred mothers.
ref: 1882 November 22, E. L. Briggs, “Development of ‘The Coming Bee’”, in The American Bee Journal, volume 18, number 47, retrieved 15 Jan 2022, page 743:
text: The nucleus should not be queened by a queen from any of the parent colonies.
ref: 1957, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (India), The Wealth of India, page 263:
topics: agriculture
beekeeping
business
lifestyle
glosses: To be the queen bee of a colony.
examples: text: In queening his apiary, he aims to keep about half of the queens of the current season's rearing, and the other of the summer preceding.
ref: 1896, The Progressive Bee-Keeper, page 320:
text: If such a queen is immediately allowed to run through the entrance of a queenless colony, the queening is usually successful.
ref: 1967, Everett Franklin Phillips, Are Bees Reflex Machines?:
text: Once you have introduced the queen, the first three steps of the capture have been completed, namely: blocking the tree, providing an alternate home, and queening the colony.
ref: 1980, Robert E. Donovan, Hunting Wild Bees:
text: Sealed cells with about to emerge queens are used for queening the divisions.
ref: 2007, NPCS Board of Consultants & Engineers, The Complete Book on Beekeeping and Honey Processing, →ISBN, page 389:
topics: agriculture
beekeeping
business
lifestyle
antonyms: dequeen
glosses: To provide with a new queen bee.
examples: text: The classic posture, in which you lie on your back while the male serves you, may make him feel arrogant and in charge. Try Queening him. Have him lie on his back while you sit on his face (make sure he has an airway through either his mouth or his nose).
ref: 1996, Lorelei, The Mistress Manual: The Good Girl’s Guide to Female Dominance, Scranton, Pennsylvania: Berkana Press, →ISBN, page 138:
text: She saw his pink tongue flickering on Clare's exposed nympha as she queened him, her love juices shining on his chin and throat[…]
ref: 2012, Yolanda Celbridge, The Castle of Maldona:
topics: BDSM
lifestyle
sexuality
synonyms: face-sit
king
glosses: To sit on a person’s face to receive oral sex, typically while straddling the person’s head.
raw_tags: of a woman
Derived terms: queener
queening square
queening stool
Related terms: queen out
facesitting
smothering