ENGLISH
REFERENCE

queue

n. countable
B1 Intermediate Oxford US //ˈkju// UK //kjˈuː// queue Archaic General-service

n. a line of people, cars, or tasks waiting for their turn. You join one when you wait for a bus or to buy tickets.

n. a sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed. In computing, refers to a data structure where the first item added is the first one to be processed.


SIMPLE

There is a long queue at the supermarket checkout.

CONTEXTUAL

The fans stood in a queue for three hours just to get a front-row seat at the concert.

COMPLEX

The printer queue is currently backed up with several large documents, so your report might take a few minutes to start processing.

Origin

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.

Usage

Commonly used with the verbs 'join', 'stand in', or 'jump'. In British English, it is the standard term for a line of people, whereas American English prefers 'line'.

Pitfall

I am waiting in the queue lineI am waiting in the queueThe word 'queue' already means a line of people; adding 'line' after it is redundant.

Idioms1 entry

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