[f. prec.]
1. To queen it: To be a queen; to act or rule as queen; to have pre-eminence like a queen.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 460. Ile Queene it no inch farther, But milke my Ewes, and weepe. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., II. iii. 37. A threepence bow’d would hire me Old as I am, to Queene it.
1790. Burns, Prol. Theatre Dumfries, 2. Yon great city That queens it o’er our taste.
1818. Milman, Samor, 7. Her milk-white neck embour’d in arching spray, Queens it along the waters.
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxvi. The imperious Vashti is left to queen it in solitude.
1894. Mrs. F. Elliot, Roman Gossip, vi. 181. Josephine was queening it at the Tuileries.
b. absol. in same sense. rare.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., IV. ii. ‘I can scarce queen while Warwick is minister,’ said Elizabeth.
2. trans. To make (a woman) a queen. Also fig.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., II. i. This Dame Woodville, whom I queened.
1880. Lady Martin, Shaks. Fem. Char., 120. That passionate childlike loving queens her in his sight.
3. To rule over as a queen.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xvi. (1852), 182. As the moon doth Queen the night.
1843. E. Jones, Poems, Sens. & Event, 115. His will, a trembling rudder She held to play with, or to queen.
4. Chess. To advance (a pawn) to the opponent’s end of the board, where it acquires the power of, and is replaced by, a queen or such other piece as the player may choose. Also absol.
1789. Twiss, Chess, II. 155. Damer le Pion, literally to queen the Pawn, is a French expression.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), IV. 640, note. To queen is to make a queen.
1808. Studies Chess, I. 219. The pawn is queened, and wins the game.
1848. H. R. Agnel, Chess, 63. You … queen your Pawn, and instead of claiming a Queen, you take a Knight.
1894. J. Mason, Principles Chess, 88. That the player who Queens first wins is a rule.
b. intr. Of a pawn: To reach the position at which it acquires the power of a queen.
1894. J. Mason, Principles Chess, 61. Attacking the Pawn, and taking it on the next move, whether it queens or not.
5. To supply (a hive) with a queen-bee.
1884. Bee-keeping (Brit. Bee-keepers’ Assoc.), 27. The bees came up … I lifted the card, she was welcomed, and the hive was now queened.
Hence Queened ppl. a., Queening vbl. sb.
1860. Staunton, Chess Praxis, iv. 41. The spirit of the modern game is to regard the Queening of a Pawn as the highest feat a player can accomplish. Ibid., 43. White can win the game by converting a ‘Queened Pawn’ into a Bishop.
