queue — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).

   Usage

   • Commonwealth usage
   • Ireland
   • UK usage
   • Uncommon
   • in North America

   Examples

   Please join the queue at the back.

   I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue.

   More examples (2)

   In a report published on October 31, Transport Focus said that a number of train companies were unable to convince it about their ability to sell a full range of tickets, handle cash payments, and avoid excessive queues at ticket machines.

   George Osborne said: “In terms of getting an international trade deal with the United States, we would have to get to the back of the queue.” And Obama said: “Would it be helpful if I said that?”[…]. So he used the words in the press conference, and people said: “Well, that sounds like somebody’s told you to say that because you used the word ‘queue’ instead of ‘line’.”

2. A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.

3. A data structure in which objects are added to one end, called the tail, and removed from the other, called the head (in the case of a FIFO queue). The term can also refer to a LIFO queue or stack where these ends coincide.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   2005, David Flanagan, Java in a Nutshell, p. 234, Queue implementations are commonly based on insertion order as in first-in, first-out (FIFO) queues or last-in, first-out queues (LIFO queues are also known as stacks).

4. An animal's tail.

   Examples

   HESSE: Az., a lion, queue fourchée, rampt., barry of ten, arg. and gu., crowned, or, and holding in his dexter paw a sword, ppr., hilt and pommel, gold.

5. A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China.

   Usage

   • Historical

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   In the morning and evening, spruce Chinamen stroll about or chat at each other's doors, in blue trousers, white jacket, and a queue into which red silk is plaited till it reaches almost to their heels.

   […], there were seated astraddle the whole hundred of the baronet's musqueteers, each engaged in plaiting into a queue the hair of the man who sat in front of him.

   A large number of loyal officials, rather than shave the front part of the head and wear the Manchu queue, voluntarily shaved the whole head, […]

   More examples (1)

   Caparisoned for a week in purple velvet knee-length pantaloons, a red silk jacket with buckles of shiny brass, and a white goat's-hair wig which culminated behind in a saucy queue, I must have presented an exotic sight […]

Verb

1. To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Although there is a spacious circulating area beyond the platforms at Clacton, there is severe overcrowding on peak Saturdays; at times of pressure passengers have to queue out into the street [...]

2. To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

3. To add to a queue data structure.

   Usage

   • Transitive

4. To fasten the hair into a queue.

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   The sons, in short square skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an eel skin for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the country as potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair.

   Though Monroe the man has become a vague anachronistic figure in knee breeches and with queued, powdered hair, his name is perpetuated in the Monroe Doctrine, evoked by him as a temporary response to an immediate crisis.

5. To matchmake.

   Examples

   I'm queueing into a game.

Noun

1. a line of people or vehicles waiting for something

   Synonyms

   waiting line

   Broader terms

   line

2. (information processing) an ordered list of tasks to be performed or messages to be transmitted

   Broader terms

   listlisting

3. a braid of hair at the back of the head

   Broader terms

   braidplaittresstwist

Verb

1. form a queue, form a line, stand in line

   Synonyms

   line upqueue up

   Broader terms

   standstand up

   Examples

   Customers lined up in front of the store