cue

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“
Unconsciously she waited for a cue, and the cue was not given Al's mind seemed intent upon making Skinner comfortable.

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Definitions (41)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (20)

  1. noun Games A long tapered rod with a leather tip used to strike the cue ball in billiards and pool.
  2. noun Games A long stick with a concave attachment at one end for shoving disks in shuffleboard.
  3. noun A queue of hair.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

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Examples (50)

  • He would always look to me for his cue, and when he saw me commence my acrobatic feats, he too would go through his little repertoire, barking and tumbling and rolling about with wonderful energy. —  Adventures of Louis de Rougemont
  • Almost on cue, the TV jingled and a text message scrolled across the bottom of the screen: ange. —  InterzoneScienceFictionandFantasyMagazine#212
  • As if on cue, there was a mean sound to the north. —  Demons Don't Dream
  • I begged him to give up that dreadful, paralyzing waiting at the side for his cue, and after a time he took my advice. —  The Story of My Life
  • Right on cue, the flock appeared from the south, heading straight for the tower. —  Magazine - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - 2007-02 - February
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This word has been looked up 186 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

clue ·  stimulus ·  deficit ·  acuity ·  stimulation ·  feedback ·  pickups ·  similarity ·  sensitivity ·  nuance ·  impairment ·  modification

Used in the same contextWord Family

cue:   cues ·  cued
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Variant of queue.
  2. Perhaps from q, qu, abbreviation of Latin quandō, when, used for actors' copies of plays; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Formerly also kue, and (in def. 3) qu; also often as F., queue; from French queue, from Old French coue, coe = Provencal coa = Spanish coda, now cola = Portuguese cauda, coda = Italian coda, from Latin coda, cauda, a tail: see cauda, caudal. Cf. coward, from the same ult. source.
  2. from cue, n.
  3. Formerly also qu; from Middle English cue, cu, or simply q. standing for L. quadrans, a farthing, though the cue seems to have been used for half a farthing. See extract from Minsheu.
 

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/kju/
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