Also 9 queu. [a. F. queue, OF. coue, cue, coe:—L. cauda tail: see CUE sb.3]
1. Her. The tail of a beast.
Queue fourché(e, having a forked or double tail.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 41. Gold ramping Lion queue doth forked hold.
1864. Boutell, Her. Hist. & Pop., xiv. (ed. 3), 164. The lion of Gueldres is also queue fourchée.
1868. Cussans, Her. (1893), 86. A Lion, with its tail between its legs, is said to be Coward; when furnished with two tails, Queue fourché, or Double queued.
2. A long plait of hair worn hanging down behind, from the head or from a wig; a pig-tail.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand. (1760), II. xlix. 116. A … coat over which his own hair descended in a leathern queue.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. v. 100. The largeness of the doctor’s wig arises from the same pride with the smallness of the beau’s queue.
1802. James, Milit. Dict., Queue … an appendage that every British soldier is directed to wear in lieu of a club.
1843. Le Fevre, Life Trav. Phys., I. I. viii. 183. Old cocked-hats, and tied queues, still stalk about the town.
1888. W. R. Carles, Life in Corea, iii. 40. These boys were all bachelors, and wore their hair in a queue down their backs.
3. A number of persons ranged in a line, awaiting their turn to proceed, as at a ticket-office; also, a line of carriages, etc.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VII. iv. That talent … of spontaneously standing in queue, distinguishes … the French People.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, II. viii. 177. A half-mile queue of carriages was formed along the street.
1876. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2), 120. A long queue, like that outside a Parisian theatre.
4. A support for the butt of a lance.
1855. in Ogilvie, Suppl.
1860. Hewitt, Ancient Armour, Suppl. 647. The butt of the lance … is supported by the piece called the queue: this was of iron, and made fast to the body-armour by screws.
5. a. ‘The tail-piece of a violin or other instrument.’ b. ‘The tail of a note’ (Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 1876).
