Library / English Dictionary

QUEER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Offensive term for a homosexual man

Synonyms:

fag; faggot; fagot; fairy; nance; pansy; poof; poove; pouf; queen; queer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("queer" is a kind of...):

gay; homo; homophile; homosexual (someone who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex)

Domain usage:

depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Beyond or deviating from the usual or expected

Example:

singular behavior

Synonyms:

curious; funny; odd; peculiar; queer; rum; rummy; singular

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

strange; unusual (being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird)

Derivation:

queerness (a strange attitude or habit)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Homosexual or arousing homosexual desires

Synonyms:

gay; homophile; queer

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

homosexual (sexually attracted to members of your own sex)

Derivation:

queerness (a sexual attraction to (or sexual relations with) persons of the same sex)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position

Synonyms:

endanger; expose; peril; queer; scupper

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "queer" is one way to...):

affect; bear on; bear upon; impact; touch; touch on (have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "queer"):

compromise (expose or make liable to danger, suspicion, or disrepute)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of

Example:

foil your opponent

Synonyms:

baffle; bilk; cross; foil; frustrate; queer; scotch; spoil; thwart

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "queer" is one way to...):

forbid; foreclose; forestall; preclude; prevent (keep from happening or arising; make impossible)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "queer"):

disappoint; let down (fail to meet the hopes or expectations of)

dash (destroy or break)

short-circuit (hamper the progress of; impede)

ruin (destroy or cause to fail)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

That is queer, indeed, said the other; let us follow the cart, and see where it goes.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“But, Humphrey—” she began to protest in a queer, husky voice.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"Guess I'll go down an' get a glass of beer," Joe said, in the queer, monotonous tones that marked his week-end collapse.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As he lay in bed, face upward, and so covered, with that exception, that he seemed to be nothing but a face—like a conventional cherubim—he looked the queerest object I ever beheld.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

My last glance showed me the unconscious Summerlee, most futile of sentinels, still nodding away like a queer mechanical toy in front of the smouldering fire.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What queer fellows your fine painters must be, to think that anybody would venture their lives in such a shapeless old cockleshell as that?

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It made a queer, grating noise.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Then you must know as well as the rest of us that there was something queer about that gentleman—something that gave a man a turn—I don’t know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this: that you felt in your marrow kind of cold and thin.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms; wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings—plain black shoes—appeared to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)