Nearby Words

queering

[kweer] Origin

queer

[kweer] adjective, -er, -est, verb, noun
adjective
1.
strange or odd from a conventional viewpoint; unusually different; singular: a queer notion of justice.
2.
of a questionable nature or character; suspicious; shady: Something queer about the language of the prospectus kept investors away.
3.
not feeling physically right or well; giddy, faint, or qualmish: to feel queer.
4.
mentally unbalanced or deranged.
5.
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
b.
effeminate; unmanly.
EXPAND
6.
Slang. bad, worthless, or counterfeit.
COLLAPSE
verb (used with object)
7.
to spoil; ruin.
8.
to put (a person) in a hopeless or disadvantageous situation as to success, favor, etc.
9.
to jeopardize.

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Queering is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
noun
10.
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. a homosexual, especially a male homosexual.
11.
Slang. counterfeit money.
12.
queer the pitch, British Informal. to spoil the chances of success.

Origin:
1500–10; perhaps < German quer oblique, cross, adverse

queer·ly, adverb
queer·ness, noun


1. unconventional, curious, freakish, eccentric, weird. See strange.


1. ordinary.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

queer
1508, "strange, peculiar, eccentric," from Scottish, perhaps from Low Ger. (Brunswick dialect) queer "oblique, off-center," related to Ger. quer "oblique, perverse, odd," from O.H.G. twerh "oblique," from PIE base *twerk- "to turn, twist, wind" (related to thwart). The verb
EXPAND
"to spoil, ruin" is first recorded 1812. Sense of "homosexual" first recorded 1922; the noun in this sense is 1935, from the adj.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

queer definition


  1. mod.
    counterfeit. : I don't want any queer money.
  2. n.
    illicit liquor, especially whiskey. (Prohibition era.) : This isn't queer; it's left over from before prohibition.
  3. mod.
    alcohol intoxicated. :
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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