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queue

Pronunciation: /kjuː/

Translate queue | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of queue

noun

  • 1chiefly British a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed.
  • 2 Computing a list of data items, commands, etc., stored so as to be retrievable in a definite order, usually the order of insertion.
  • 3 archaic a plait of hair worn at the back.

verb (queues, queuing or queueing, queued)

  • 1 [no object] chiefly British take one’s place in a queue:in the war they had queued for food
  • (queue up) be extremely keen to do or have something:companies are queuing up to move to the bay
  • 2 [with object] Computing arrange in a queue: input or output requests to a file are queued by the operating system

Origin:

late 16th century (as a heraldic term denoting the tail of an animal): from French, based on Latin cauda 'tail'. Compare with cue2. queue (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the mid 19th century

Spelling help

Queuing is usually spelled without an e before the i, although queueing is also correct.

Do not confuse cue with queue. Cue means 'a signal for action' (the announcement was a cue for the crowd to gather) or 'a long wooden rod', whereas queue means 'a line of people or vehicles' (I joined the end of the queue).

queue in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of queue in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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