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queue (ky)
Share:
n.
1. A line of waiting people or vehicles.
2. Computers
a. A sequence of stored data or programs awaiting processing.
b. A data structure from which the first item that can be retrieved is the one stored earliest.
3. A long braid of hair worn hanging down the back of the neck; a pigtail.
v. queued, queu·ing, queues
v.intr.
To get in line: queue up at the box office.
v.tr.
1. To place in a sequence: queued the queries in order of relevance.
2. To braid or twist (hair) into a queue.

[French, tail, queue, from Middle French, from Old French cue, tail, from Latin cauda, cōda; see CODA.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.