duke

1 of 2

noun

ˈdük 

also ˈdyük

1

: a sovereign male ruler of a continental European duchy

2

: a nobleman of the highest hereditary rank

especially : a member of the highest grade of the British peerage

3

[probably from dukes of York, rhyming slang for fork (hand, fist)] slang : fist, hand

—usually used in plural

dukedom

ˈdük-dəm 

also ˈdyük-

noun

duke

2 of 2

verb

duked; duking

intransitive verb

: fight

see also:

duke it out

Examples of duke in a Sentence

Noun

Put up your dukes and fight, you coward!

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Burnard and O’Shaughnessy point out that, whereas Britain regularly sent nobles to govern the Caribbean colonies—and dukes and earls to Ireland—the men appointed to administer the thirteen colonies more often lacked titles and were paid less. —Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 4 May 2026

The Jets went into last year’s training camp prepared to let an undrafted rookie (Caden Davis) and another young kicker (Harrison Mevis) duke it out. —Zack Rosenblatt, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026

Verb

Or, the Jets will roll with Smith and Klubnik, and let Zappe and Cook duke it out for the third quarterback spot — either on the active roster or practice squad. —Zack Rosenblatt, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2026

While Anthropic and OpenAI are busy duking it out over enterprise and government customers, Google is stepping right in to gobble up everyday users that are already accustomed to turning to the tech company to run their email, meetings, and other large swaths of their lives. —Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 22 Apr. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French duc, from Latin duc-, dux, from ducere to lead — more at tow entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1935, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing duke

• duke it out
• grand duke

Rhymes for duke

• fluke
• juke
• kook
• luc
• luke
• nuke
• puke
• souk
• spook
• archduke
• rebuke
• caoutchouc

Kids Definition

duke

noun

ˈd(y)ük

1

: a soveriegn ruler of a duchy

2

: a nobleman of the highest rank especially of the British nobility

3

slang : fist sense 1

—usually used in plural

Biographical Definition

Duke

biographical name

ˈdük 

ˈdyük

Benjamin Newton 1855–1929 and his brother James Buchanan 1856–1925 American tobacco industrialists