duke

noun \ ˈdük also ˈdyük \

|Updated on: 9 Aug 2018

Examples: duke in a Sentence

Definition of duke

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

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

slang : fist, hand —usually used in plural

—

dukedom

play \-dəm\ noun

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Examples of duke in a Sentence

Put up your dukes and fight, you coward!

Recent Examples of duke from the Web

As the four capitalists in Sarah Burgess’ play duke it out over whether morality has any place in high finance, Jennifer King’s flawless direction makes the minutiae of analysts’ numbers and contracts’ clauses hum with life.

— SFChronicle.com, "Theater capsule reviews and listings, week of July 15," 12 July 2018
Back in April, a source told Travel + Leisure that the duke and duchess planned to honeymoon in the African country.

— elise taylor, Vogue, "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Came Back From Their Top-Secret Honeymoon," 12 June 2018
Today, the duke has set his sights higher once again and is focusing on the U.S.

— jeffrey a. trachtenberg, WSJ, "From a London Bookstore to the U.S. Reader," 5 July 2018
There’s nothing quite like a prince or duke — or earl — in uniform.

— maura hohman, PEOPLE.com, "Prince William Is Strikingly Handsome as His Alter Ego the Earl of Strathearn," 5 July 2018
The British hereditary title is directly below baron, with viscounts, earls, marquesses, and dukes above it.

— sam dangremond, Town & Country, "6 Things to Know About Jack Brooksbank's Family Ahead of His Wedding to Princess Eugenie," 26 June 2018
The duke, who served as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, founded the competition after attending the similar U.S. Warrior Games.

— caroline picard, Good Housekeeping, "Prince Harry Just Revealed the Location of the 2020 Invictus Games," 4 June 2018
As the four capitalists in Sarah Burgess' play duke it out over whether morality has any place in high finance, Jennifer King’s flawless direction makes the minutiae of analysts’ numbers and contracts’ clauses hum with life.

— SFChronicle.com, "Theater capsule reviews and listings, week of July 8," 5 July 2018
Even though the duke had multiple children with his housekeeper, none of them inherited his properties because the relationship was declared illegitimate at the time.

— rick noack, Washington Post, "Thanks to a pro-American ‘radical duke,’ England has its own copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence," 4 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'duke.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of duke

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

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First Known Use: 12th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Other Government and Politics Terms

agent provocateur, agitprop, autarky, cabal, egalitarianism, federalism, hegemony, plenipotentiary, popular sovereignty, socialism

duke

verb

Definition of duke

duked; duking

intransitive verb

: fight

— duke it out

: to engage in a fight and especially a fistfight

See duke defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of duke from the Web

The two titans long ago branched out from their core businesses — games and social media for Tencent, e-commerce for Alibaba — to duke it out in ever more realms of Chinese life.

— raymond zhong, New York Times, "Worried About Big Tech? Chinese Giants Make America’s Look Tame," 31 May 2018
Or will rookie fourth-round pick Avonte Maddox surprise everyone and wind up winning the slot job, while Mills, Jones and Darby duke it out in training camp and the preseason for the two outside jobs?

— paul domowitch, Philly.com, "Eagles need a slot replacement for Patrick Robinson. Could it be 5-9 rookie Avonte Maddox?," 4 May 2018
While North and South Siders duke it out for Chicago supremacy, West Siders have quietly gone about their business.

— michael nagrant, RedEye Chicago, "A guide to eating your way through Chicago's West Side," 19 Oct. 2017
The logical choice would be to have those two duke it out on the field to determine a champion, right?

— will mccollister, SI.com, "On the Outside Looking In: The Best Teams to Finish No. 3 in the BCS Era," 11 July 2018
With a new long-haul airliner from Boeing and a new narrow-body jet from Airbus, these two aviation giants continue to duke it out for control of the skies.

— jay bennett, Popular Mechanics, "Boeing and Airbus Debut New Airliners With First Flights on the Same Day," 3 Apr. 2017
Devin Gil, Josh Uche and Drew Singleton are all ready to duke it out for McCray's spot.

— nick baumgardner, Detroit Free Press, "Michigan football's defense is championship caliber," 7 July 2018
The nations of the world duke it out for pyrotechnic superiority every Saturday and Wednesday night through July and into early August at the Parc Jean-Drapeau.

— christopher muther, BostonGlobe.com, "It’s a great time for a summer sojourn to Montreal," 21 June 2018
But Serbia, Switzerland and 2014 Cinderella Costa Rica all can duke it out for a place in the knockout stage, too.

— si.com staff, SI.com, "World Cup Group Previews: A Deep Look at Each Quartet at Russia 2018," 8 June 2018

First Known Use of duke

circa 1947

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Duke

biographical name \ ˈdük , ˈdyük \

Definition of Duke

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

DUKE Defined for English Language Learners

duke

noun

Definition of duke for English Language Learners

: a man of very high rank in the British nobility
: the ruler of an independent area of land especially in some parts of Europe in the past
dukes : fists or hands