Word of the Day: Cue and Queue
Cue
cue / kyo͞o
noun
1. the letter “Q”, ”q”
In the English language, when spelling words, the letter Q is almost always followed by the letter U.
2. a rod used to hit a billiard ball or used to shove disks in shuffleboard
In snooker, it’s very important to keep very still on the shot and allow the cue to do the work.
Stephen Hendry, 1969 –
3. a signal used to prompt a performer during a performance
Don’t worry if you miss your cue, because there’s always doors opening.
Jim Carrey, 1962 –
4. a signal or hint
Acting is the ability to dream on cue.
Ralph Richardson, 1902-1983
5. a stimulus used to provoke a certain reaction
Rather, to change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.
Charles Duhigg, 1974 –
verb
1. to strike a ball (in billiards) or shove a disk (in shuffleboard) with a rod
“I cued the ball well and enjoyed it,” world number five Trump told World Snooker’s official website.
“Welsh snooker star Mark Williams knocked out World Grand Prix in Llandudno”, 3/9/2016
2. to provide with a hint or signal
We are cued to laugh or cry, be frightened or relieved; Hitchcock called the movies a machine for causing emotions in the audience.
Roger Ebert, 1942 – 2013
3. to insert into a portion of a performance
Develop enough tension and cue the music right, then have something jump out: It’s almost impossible not to jump in your seat.
Daniel Myrick, 1962 –
4. to position to play
Cue up the Christmas music for the most wonderful time of year.
Jay Monson, “Herald Journal” News, 11-26-2018
Queue
queue / kyo͞o
noun
1. a line waiting for something
There is no queue at the gate of Patience.
Moroccan Proverb
2. a succession of data awaiting processing
A queue is useful in producer/consumer situations, where one portion of code is creating data to be used by another portion.
3. hair gathered at the back of the head to form a braid; a pigtail
His blue-black queue, freshly oiled, gleamed like the coils of an active hill snake.
From “Peter the Brazen” by George F. Worts, 1892 – 1967
verb
1. to line up
I hate flying, airports and the whole rigmarole – queuing up, security and lost luggage.
Johnny Vegas, 1971 –
2. to place in a sequence
You just put it on your DVR, or queue it up on your computer, and it’s an on-demand and instant access world.
Joseph McGinty Nichol, 1968 –
3. to braid hair to form a pigtail
Gilman dressed himself in a fashionable suit of the period, made up of gingham, queued his hair with a yard and a half of black ribbon to the size and thickness of a corn-cob, greased it with a candle and plastered it with flour, tied on his heavy brogans and donned his wool hat, mounted his ” Dobbin gray,” like the wooer in the old ballad, and jogged off to the cabin of the Doans.
From “Cleveland Illustrated: A Pictorial Handbook of the Forest City, Together With an Account of Its Most Attractive Suburbs” by William H. Payne, ? – ?
Thank you for including the Dictionary Project in the good work you do in your club. In my club, we have provided Dictionaries for third-grade students for enough years that now we are having former students help us to present dictionaries each year. They are often returning to the same classrooms that they were third-grade students. Teachers plead every year for us to NEVER quit this valuable project. They tell us that students NEED paper books to learn to read, to learn to do research and to do independent study. Please send me pictures of your presentations and tell me about your visits to the schools to give dictionaries to the students. To be included in our newsletter you can send me your stories at DG.2019@5630mail.org.
