Definition of queue
1 : a braid of hair usually worn hanging at the back of the head
2 : a waiting line especially of persons or vehicles
3a : a sequence of messages or jobs held in temporary storage awaiting transmission or processingb : a data structure that consists of a list of records such that records are added at one end and removed from the other
Indulge Your Inner Word Nerd
Examples of queue in a Sentence
The Tiong Bahru hawker center in Singapore might well be my favorite place in the world to start the day. I remember vividly my first visit: I arrived jetlagged and hungry at seven in the morning to find vendors stir-frying greens in gigantic woks, sending up whooshes of smoke fragrant with garlic. Long queues of businessmen and construction workers and families who likely lived in the nearby housing projects snaked from the cash register of each stall. —James Oseland, Saveur, October 2008
Around the time the Soviet Union ceased to exist, I was waiting in the entry queue at Fiumicino Airport in Rome when I noticed a party of several dozen young Russian girls being fast-tracked past a freshly opened control window. —Peter Robb, New York Times Book Review, 25 May 2008
But many more people deserve the Nobel than get it. Krauss should've gotten it years ago. Though by now so many other discoveries have been made that he's farther down in an ever increasing queue. —Carl Djerassi Cantor's Dilemma, 1989
We were forced to stand in a queue.
Three jobs remain in the printer queue.
Recent Examples of queue from the Web
-
Taking a loop on the London Eye—or at least Instagramming it—is a must for many travelers visiting the U.K., even when the nearly $30 ticket comes with time restrictions and really, really long lines (cough queues).
-
South Sudanese who fled fighting in nearby Leer queue for aid at a food distribution center set up by the World Food Program in Bentiu, South Sudan.
-
There are people everywhere, and his job is to send them into the right queues.
-
The Urdu-speaking analysts who covered Pakistan at the NSA sat in cubicles and worked in shifts listening to audio files that stacked up in queues on their computer screens like emails.
-
Though there was some Twitter buzz that popular online ticket outlet Fandango crashed during the process, the retailer opted instead for a queue system to stem the user surge.
-
By Tuesday, most of the long food lines had dissipated as orderly queues three or four deep formed around the arena toward the end of the roll call vote.
-
Since 2000 De La Rosa and other members of his family have been in the queue to get a green card.
-
Long lines are already part of the Hopdoddy experience; expect even lengthier queues in Houston.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'queue'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Is it que, queue, or q?
One of our persistent—and more puzzling—lookups is for the word que, which is entered in our dictionary (capitalized) as an abbreviation for Quebec. Qué is also a Spanish word that means “what.” That is not, however, the word that many people are looking for when they look up que in our dictionary. Que is homophonous with a number of other words, most of which have wildly different spellings and meanings. One of the words that people are looking for when they look up que is queue, a word that means “line” (as in, “We waited in the ticket queue.”) Sometimes people are looking for the homonym cue, or “a signal to start or do something” (“The lights just went out—that’s my cue to start the movie.”). Very occasionally, people look up que for coup, a word that refers to a violent and sudden overthrow or takeover of a government (“reports on the latest coup attempt”). And if you’re looking for the phonetic spelling of the letter q, try again: that’s cue.
Origin and Etymology of queue
French, literally, tail, from Old French cue, coe, from Latin cauda, coda
Definition of queue
queued
;queuing
orqueueing
transitive verb
: to arrange or form in a queue (see 1queue)
intransitive verb
: to line up or wait in a queue —often used with up
queuer
nounExamples of queue in a Sentence
The World's Food Fair, Boston. October 1896. Admission: 25 cents. Huge crowds throng the Mechanics Hall convention center. Women queue up for free samples from 200 different vendors: cereals, gelatins, extracts, candy, and custards. —Christopher Kimball, Cook's Illustrated, January & February 2008
Nothing hacks off a national lawmaker more than a person who will not wait in line, unless that line is in front of an elevator at the U.S. Capitol, where Senators and Representatives use private elevators, lest they have to queue with their constituents. —Steve Rushin, Time, 10 Sept. 2007
The crowd was queuing at the snack bar.
Recent Examples of queue from the Web
-
Which means children and adults alike queue to meet Mickey and other favorite characters.
-
We’re running a pilot to do service queuing for the pharmacy, meat department or deli.
-
The diplomatic corps is queuing up to see her — and those who score face time are wasting no time sharing it.
-
New Yorkers have been known to queue up for many a hot-ticket item: dinner reservations, iPhones, Cronuts.
-
At one point, the entourage pulled into one of Italy’s familiar highway rest stops, the Autogrill, which are usually teeming with travelers queuing for espressos and sandwiches.
-
There were a lot of visitors queued up to go inside when the explosion happened.
-
Locals queuing to return a book or to meet with a councilor are now invited to print and read one of the six hundred original stories provided by the machines.
-
Queueing for hours happened most famously (and does to this day) at Franklin BBQ in Austin, where Aaron Franklin has set the bar high for the latest generation of barbecue artisans.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'queue'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of queue
see 1queue
QUEUE Defined for English Language Learners
queue
playDefinition of queue for English Language Learners
-
: a line of people who are waiting for something
-
computers : a series of instructions that are stored in a computer so that they can be processed later
QUEUE Defined for Kids
Definition of queue for Students
queued
;queuing
orqueueing
: to form or wait in a line People are queuing for tickets.
Learn More about queue
-
See words that rhyme with queue Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for queue Spanish Central: Translation of queue Nglish: Translation of queue for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of queue for Arabic speakers
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up queue? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Writing? Check your grammar now!