queue

Meaning

Noun

1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, uncommon) 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).
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.
4. An animal's tail.
5. (historical) A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To put oneself or itself at the end of a waiting line.
2. (intransitive) To arrange themselves into a physical waiting queue.
3. (transitive) To add to a queue data structure.
4. To fasten the hair into a queue.

Synonyms

line

row

pigtail

braid

plait

file

range

tail

waiting line

line

line up

cue

turn

queue up

series

stand in line

tress

string

🪢

stem

brush

stalk

team

tier

stand in a line

twist

turn-taking

wait in line

wait on line

pig-tail

waiting queue

stand in a queue

action

activity

backup

chain

column

end

🔚

group

joule

list

plaits

plat

pony tail

portion

procedure

process

procession

rope

🪢

rows

sequence

Translations

cola

queue

fila

fila

faire la queue

coda

file

Schlange

🐍

ουρά

kuyruk

Warteschlange

fila

rij

cua

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kjuː/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: queue

Cognate with Middle French: queu

In summary

From Middle English queue, quew, qwew, couwe, from Anglo-Norman queue, keu and Old French cöe, cue, coe (“tail”), from Vulgar Latin cōda, from Latin cauda. See also Middle French queu, cueue. Doublet of coda and cola.