Dictionaries › English

cue

Pronunciation: /kjuː/

The English word “cue” has 13 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
  2. A small portion of bread or beer; the quantity bought with a farthing or half farthing and noted with a q (for Latin quadrāns (“farthing”)) in the buttery books.
  3. An action or event that is a signal for somebody to do something.
  4. The last words of a play actor's speech, serving as an intimation for the next actor to speak; any word or words which serve to remind an actor to speak or to do something; a catchword.
  5. A marker or signal that triggers something, such as the start of an audio recording.
  6. A hint or intimation.
  7. Humour; temper of mind.
  8. A straight tapering stick used to hit the balls in various games.
  9. The tail; the end of a thing; especially, a tail-like twist of hair worn at the back of the head; a queue.

verb

  1. To give someone a cue signal.
  2. To spark or provoke.
  3. To take aim on the cue ball with the cue and hit it.
  4. To form into a cue; to braid; to twist.

Etymology

From Middle English cu (used for half a farthing, from q as an abbreviation for Latin quadrāns (“quarter of an as”)), from Latin cū, kū. Compare French ku.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “cue” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.