Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The letter q.
  • noun A signal, such as a word or action, used to prompt another event in a performance, such as an actor's speech or entrance, a change in lighting, or a sound effect.
  • noun A reminder or prompting.
  • noun A hint or suggestion.
  • noun An extract from the music for another part printed, usually in smaller notes, within a performer's part as a signal to enter after a long rest.
  • noun A gesture by a conductor signaling the entrance of a performer or part.
  • noun Psychology A stimulus, either consciously or unconsciously perceived, that elicits or signals a type of behavior.
  • noun Archaic One's assigned role or function.
  • noun Archaic A mood; a disposition.
  • transitive verb To give a cue to; signal or prompt.
  • transitive verb To insert into the sequence of a performance.
  • transitive verb To position (an audio or video recording) in readiness for playing.
  • noun Games A long tapered stick with a leather tip used to strike the cue ball in billiards and pool.
  • noun Games A long stick with a concave attachment at one end for shoving disks in shuffleboard.
  • transitive verb Games To strike (a ball) with a cue.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To tie into a cue or tail.
  • noun The name of the letter Q, q.
  • noun A farthing; a half-farthing.
  • noun A farthing's worth; the quantity bought with a farthing, as a small quantity of bread or beer.
  • noun The tail; something hanging down like a tail, as the long curl of a wig or a long roll or plait of hair. In this sense also queue. See pigtail.
  • noun A number of persons ranged in a line, awaiting their turn to be served, as at a bank or a ticket-office. In this sense also queue.
  • noun Theat, words which when spoken at the end of a speech in the course of a play are the signal for an answering speech, or for the entrance of another actor, etc.
  • noun In music, a fragment of some other part printed in small notes, at the end of a long rest or silence occurring in the part of a voice or an instrument, to assist the singer or player in beginning promptly and correctly.
  • noun Hence— A hint; an intimation; a guiding suggestion.
  • noun The part which one is to play; a course of action prescribed, or made necessary by circumstances.
  • noun Humor; turn or temper of mind.
  • noun A straight tapering rod tipped with a small soft pad, used to strike the balls in billiards, bagatelle, and similar games.
  • noun A support for a lance; a lance-rest.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To form into a cue; to braid; to twist.
  • noun obsolete A small portion of bread or beer; the quantity bought with a farthing or half farthing.
  • noun The tail; the end of a thing; especially, a tail-like twist of hair worn at the back of the head; a queue.
  • noun The last words of a play actor's speech, serving as an intimation for the next succeeding player to speak; any word or words which serve to remind a player to speak or to do something; a catchword.
  • noun A hint or intimation.
  • noun The part one has to perform in, or as in, a play.
  • noun colloq. Humor; temper of mind.
  • noun A straight tapering rod used to impel the balls in playing billiards.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An action or event that is a signal for somebody to do something.
  • noun The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
  • noun obsolete, UK A small portion of bread or beer; the quantity bought with a farthing or half farthing and noted with a q (for Latin quadrans farthing) in the buttery books.
  • verb The act of giving someone a cue signal.
  • noun sports, billiards, snooker, pool A straight tapering rod used to impel the balls in various games.
  • verb sports, billiards, snooker, pool The act of taking aim on the cue ball with the cue and hitting it.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb assist (somebody acting or reciting) by suggesting the next words of something forgotten or imperfectly learned
  • noun sports implement consisting of a tapering rod used to strike a cue ball in pool or billiards
  • noun a stimulus that provides information about what to do

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French queue, tail, billiards cue (in the latter sense perhaps originally referring to the narrow leather-tipped end, or “tail,” of the cue); see queue.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the letter Q, abbreviation of Latin quando (“when”), marked on actor's play copy where they were to begin.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Not to be confused with queue.

    April 29, 2007

  • A line of waiting people.

    April 30, 2007