Pronunciations (7)
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/kwɪə/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/kwɪɹ/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/kwiə̯/
Pronunciation notes
- New-Zealand
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/kwiɹ/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
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/kwɛː/
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kwɪɹ
Pronunciation notes
- US
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kwɪə
Pronunciation notes
- GB
Adjective
Homosexual.
Usage- Colloquial
- Derogatory
- sometimes
- Examples
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More examples (1)
“Such a Momma’s boy.” The old men had started up again—or perhaps they had never stopped. “No matter who he schtupped. Even Marilyn. I wouldn’t be surprised he was queer.” / “Strange, yes. Weird, yes. Queer, I don’t think.”
This is a one-shot thing we got goin’ on here. […] You know I ain’t queer.
Non-heterosexual or non-cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.
Usage- Colloquial
- Derogatory
- sometimes
Pertaining to sexual or gender behaviour or identity which does not conform to conventional heterosexual or cisgender norms, assumptions etc.
Usage- broadly
- Examples
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the queer community
If gender is no longer to be understood as consolidated through normative sexuality, then is there a crisis of gender that is specific to queer contexts?
More examples (2)
Historically, this has meant that queer sexuality—defined here not literally or only as same-gender desire but as "the sex of others," meaning any sexuality outside the bounds of the reproductive, white, and genitally oriented—is often positioned against and even as toxic to "nature".
And yet queer and transgender people are finding a place in a lifestyle that, at least online, often occupies the same digital space as content from conservative creators, said Devin Proctor, an assistant professor of anthropology at Elon University in North Carolina who studies how we construct identities online.
Strange, odd, or different; whimsical.
Usage- Dated
- Humorous
- often
- Examples
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An old long-faced, long-bodied servant, gave a queer look
More examples (4)
“I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”
One thing has struck me as a bit queer. During my two terms of office the whole Democratic press, and the morbidly honest and 'reformatory' portion of the Republican press, thought it horrible to keep U.S. troops stationed in the Southern States, and when they were called upon to protect the lives of negroes–as much citizens under the Constitution as if their skins were white–the country was scarcely large enough to hold the sound of indignation belched forth by them for some years. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting the whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest intimation that danger threatens.
It looked queer to me to see boxes labeled "His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America." The packages so labeled contained Bass ale or Cognac brandy, which cost "His Excellency" less than we Yankees had to pay for it. Think of the President drinking imported liquors while his soldiers were living on pop-corn and water!
Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
“’Tis a queer book - here, leave me git on my spectacles - ” The old man fumbled among his rags, producing a pair of dirty and amazingly antique glasses (...)
More examples (4)
1927, J. B. S. Haldane, “Possible Worlds” in Possible Worlds and Other Papers, London: Chatto & Windus, Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
A queer look came over John Arable's face. He seemed almost ready to cry himself.
Though it may seem very queer, we've got no jobs to give you here, so we are sending you to Vietnam.
When the lights popped out, when the smoke began to clear / It was positively queer
Slightly unwell.
Usage- UK usage
- Dated
- Informal
- Examples
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I felt queer after eating those shrimp.
More examples (1)
Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. … When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
"Well, I'm—I'm jiggered," said Peter, and his voice also sounded queer.
More examples (1)
VLADIMIR: Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that? / ESTRAGON: Why don't you help me? / VLADIMIR: Sometimes I feel it coming all the same. Then I go all queer.
Drunk.
Usage- UK usage
- Dated
- Slang
Noun
A person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities.
Usage- Colloquial
- Derogatory
- sometimes
- Examples
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More examples (7)
Now that the first flush of this catastrophe and grief is passed, I write to tell you that it is a judgement on the whole lot of you. Montgomerys, The Snob Queers like [the Earl of] Rosebery & certainly Christian hypocrite [William Ewart] Gladstone [...]
[...] fourteen young men were invited [...] with the premise that they would have the opportunity of meeting some of the prominent 'queers,' [...] and the further attraction that some 'chickens' as the new recruits in the vice are called, would be available.
It is the queers themselves whose answers to "What to do about it [homosexuality]" are most important. They, rather than the normals, cops, parents, or doctors are the persons most vitally concerned.
Any blow against the queer is really a blow struck against a part of ourselves which we cannot accept or understand. I think in every case it would be correct to say that someone with a strong hostility toward homosexuals has a latent homosexual drive equal to the hostility.
If you asked the man in the modern street for his opinion of homosexuality, he would probably reply, 'I've nothing against queers myself but I wouldn't like one of them to marry my father.'
Queers are under siege. Queers are being attacked on all front and I'm afraid it's ok with us. In 1969, Queers were attacked. It wasn't ok. Queers fought back, took the streets. SHOUTED.
He also voiced his dislike for gays, stating: 'I don't believe in queers. I don't like queers. I don't hate them as a person, but what they do is wrong and an abomination against God.'
A person of any non-heterosexual sexuality or sexual identity.
Usage- Colloquial
- Derogatory
- sometimes
A person of any genderqueer identity.
Usage- Colloquial
- Derogatory
- sometimes
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Gentrification often starts with the artists, revolutionaries, freaks, transfolks, and queers (what I would call my people) moving into poor neighborhoods inhabited by people of color.
Counterfeit money.
Usage- Archaic
- Informal
- with-definite-article
- Synonyms
- Examples
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You're shoving the queer.
Verb
To render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.
Usage- Dated
- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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I was a lot more apt to queer it than help it.
To puzzle.
Usage- UK usage
- Dated
- dialectal
- Examples
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More examples (1)
"But lor-a-mussy, Jacob, how could a woman get away from here with all her boxes in the middle of the night?" "That's what queered me," and Spink slowly shook his head, "and queered a good many; for of course it got newsed about […]"
"Where do you come from?" Stanley queered.
To ridicule; to banter; to rally.
Usage- Dated
- Slang
To spoil the effect or success of, as by ridicule; to throw a wet blanket on; to spoil.
Usage- Dated
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (1)
"Food is what queered the party. We ordered a big supper to be sent up to the room about two o'clock. Alec didn't give the waiter a tip, so I guess the little bastard snitched."
Well, then I got buried—shell dropped, and the dug-out caved in—and that queered me. They sent me home.
You'll queer yourself on Broadway—you'll never get another job.
To reevaluate or reinterpret (a work) with an eye to sexual orientation and/or to gender, as by applying queer theory.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
If I go, for instance, to the history of the church in Latin America, and decide to queer the history of the Jesuitic Missions, I may find that, in many ways, the missions were more sexual than Christian.
Jonathan Goldberg further explores the implications of queering history in his essay in the same volume.
More examples (1)
We might say that there has been a ‘queering’ of urban studies insofar as the metropolitan lives, subcultures and social movements of gays and lesbians are now seen as valid objects of study.
To make a work more appealing or attractive to LGBT people, such as by not having strict genders for playable characters.
Usage- neologism
- Slang
Adverb
Queerly.
Usage- not-comparable
- usually
Very, extremely.
Usage- Ireland
- not-comparable
- usually
- Examples
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Twas a queer bachram in the pub that night!
Ah, but she was the queer old skeowsha anyhow, Anna Livia, trinkettoes!”
More examples (1)
Page 6: Tony: Yeah, he's a queer smily fecker, ain't he? Page 14: Tony: I'll tell yeh one thing Conway he's trainin' queer hard for it!
Adjective
beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
- Examples
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a curious hybrid accent
her speech has a funny twang
More examples (6)
they have some funny ideas about war
had an odd name
the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves
something definitely queer about this town
what a rum fellow
singular behavior
homosexual or arousing homosexual desires
Noun
offensive term for a homosexual man
- Broader terms
Verb
hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
- Examples
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What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge
foil your opponent
put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position