queer
Definitions
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The queer old lady who went to college -
WordNet 3.6
- adj queer beyond or deviating from the usual or expected "a curious hybrid accent","her speech has a funny twang","they have some funny ideas about war","had an odd name","the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves","something definitely queer about this town","what a rum fellow","singular behavior"
- adj queer homosexual or arousing homosexual desires
- v queer put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position
- v queer hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge","foil your opponent"
- n queer offensive term for an openly homosexual man
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Additional illustrations & photos:
The Queer Side of Things
"OH, MY! LOOK AT THIS QUEER-LOOKING GOAT WITH THREE HORNS. DON'T HE LOOK FIERCE?"
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Interesting fact: In Staten Island, New York it is illegal for a father to call his son a 'faggot' or 'queer' in an effort to curb 'girlie' behavior.
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- Queer a homosexual.
- Queer At variance with what is usual or normal; differing in some odd way from what is ordinary; odd; singular; strange; whimsical; as, a queer story or act. "A queer look."
- Queer Counterfeit money.
- Queer homosexual.
- Queer Mysterious; suspicious; questionable; as, a queer transaction.
- Queer To puzzle.
- Queer To ridicule; to banter; to rally.
- Queer To spoil the effect or success of, as by ridicule; to throw a wet blanket on; to spoil.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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- queer Appearing, behaving, or feeling otherwise than is usual or normal; odd; singular; droll; whimsical; quaint.
- queer Open to suspicion; doubtful in point of honesty.
- queer Counterfeit; worthless.
- queer Having a sensation of sudden or impending illness; sick or languid.
- queer Synonyms Strange, Odd, etc. (see eccentric), curious, extraordinary, unique, fantastic.
- n queer Counterfeit money; “green goods.”
- queer To banter; ridicule; deride.
- queer To puzzle.
- n queer An obsolete form of quire.
- n queer One of the joints or division-planes of queery rock.
- queer To put wrong (unexpectedly); throw out of its proper status or working; ruin the success of; render useless by interference or infelicitous aid.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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- adj Queer kwēr odd, singular, quaint: open to suspicion, dubious: counterfeit: having a sensation of coming sickness
- v.t Queer (slang) to banter, ridicule
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Quotations
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“Conceit is a queer disease -- it makes everyone Sick except the person who has it.” -
“Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it.”
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“America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.”
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“When Man evolved Pity, he did a queer thing -- deprived himself of the power of living life as it is without wishing it to become something different.”
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“I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again -- as I always am when I write.”
Idioms
Queer fish - (UK) A strange person is a queer fish.
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Queer Street - If someone is in a lot of trouble, especially financial, they are in Queer Street.
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Queer your pitch - If someone queers your pitch, they interfere in your affairs and spoil things.
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Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
G. quer, cross, oblique, athwart (cf. querkopf, a queer fellow), OHG. twer, twerh, dwerah,; akin to D. dvars, AS, þweorh, thwart, bent, twisted, Icel. þverr, thwart, transverse, Goth. þwaìrhs, angry, and perh. to L. torqyere, to twist, and E. through,. Cf. Torture Through Thwart (a.)
Usage
In literature:
It was a queer plight to be in.
"My Friend Smith" by Talbot Baines Reed
It had been a queer year for Mr Snaggs.
"Clayhanger" by Arnold Bennett
With a queer grinding noise the engine stopped.
"Shelled by an Unseen Foe" by James Fiske
But the Congdons are all queer.
"Blacksheep! Blacksheep!" by Meredith Nicholson
Clo remembered both, with a queer, sick pang.
"The Lion's Mouse" by C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
It was hard to understand this queer girl.
"Mary Louise in the Country" by L. Frank Baum (AKA Edith Van Dyne)
If she will only fall in love with Ned I'll forgive her all the queer things she is always doing.
"The Highgrader" by William MacLeod Raine
Of course he wore a beard; in those days he would have been thought queer if he had not.
"Fair Harbor" by Joseph Crosby Lincoln
In his intense desire to see the effect of the queerly chosen place on his queerly chosen companion, he now turned to him.
"The Best Short Stories of 1919" by Various
It's queer how they're crazy for physic.
"The Heart of Unaga" by Ridgwell Cullum
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In poetry:
In that hour when all is quiet
Sang he songs of noise and riot,
In a voice so loud and queer
That I wakened up to hear.
Sang he songs of noise and riot,
In a voice so loud and queer
That I wakened up to hear.
"The Waster Singing at Midnight" by Robert Fuller Murray
Chorus:
Now when a fellow takes a run
To England for a bit of fun,
He’s sure to ’stonish everyone
With the queer ways of Australia.
Now when a fellow takes a run
To England for a bit of fun,
He’s sure to ’stonish everyone
With the queer ways of Australia.
"The Queer Ways Of Australia" by Charles R Thatcher
"It's queer that I should see them so-
The time they came to Bethlehem
Was more than thirty years ago;
I've prayed that all is well with them."
The time they came to Bethlehem
Was more than thirty years ago;
I've prayed that all is well with them."
"The Maid-Servant At The Inn" by Dorothy Parker
"He watched how the townsfolk hurried
Eagerly to and fro;
He heard the voice of his mother,
Quiet and brave and low;
And he saw his father shoulder
A queer old gun and go.
Eagerly to and fro;
He heard the voice of his mother,
Quiet and brave and low;
And he saw his father shoulder
A queer old gun and go.
"July" by Nancy Byrd Turner
There they sat looking queer, for an hour or more,
But their feller passinger neather on 'em sore:
Never, never back again did that lady come
To that pooty sleeping Hinfnt a suckin of his Thum!
But their feller passinger neather on 'em sore:
Never, never back again did that lady come
To that pooty sleeping Hinfnt a suckin of his Thum!
"The Lamentable Ballad Of The Foundling Of Shoreditch" by William Makepeace Thackeray
When I wander down that evenin', she come smilin' to the gate,
An' her look is calculatin', as she scolds because I'm late.
She takes my hat an' sits me down an' heaves a little sigh.
But I get a queer sensation from that glimmer in her eye.
An' her look is calculatin', as she scolds because I'm late.
She takes my hat an' sits me down an' heaves a little sigh.
But I get a queer sensation from that glimmer in her eye.
"Red Robin" by C J Dennis
In news:
Jewish group asks Pride to ban Queers Against Israeli Apartheid .
Avant-garde film, art, and live performances come to Brooklyn this week at the 25th New York Queer Experimental Film Festival.
Mykki Blanco 's Mutant Radio Rap Kills 'Queer Rap' Dead.
Queer kids especially at danger in school.
Actor Ezra Miller, soon to be seen as a gay high school student in the film adaptation of the much loved novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, says he identifies as queer.
The often unseen moments of alienation felt by LGBT youth are assembled in a touching web video, which comes from activists in the Netherlands but that will feel relatable to anyone who grew up queer.
Looking for a queer Laundromat.
Amish, Hippies , and Queers, Oh My.
Queer & confused: 'I find myself wondering if I'm somehow straight after all'.
Queer by Choice, Not by Chance: Against Being 'Born This Way'.
They're part of the Q Center's Queer Heroes Northwest exhibit.
The Q Center officially unveils its multi-media show Queer Heroes Northwest on Thursday night.
' Queer Style: From The Closet to The Catwalks' Fashion Exhibit Coming to FIT.
Queer Eye for a Great Guy.
Jazz and the Queer Aesthetic.
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In science:
Nazarov M., Yangian of the queer Lie superalgebra, Comm.
Yangian of the Strange Lie Superalgebra of $\boldsymbol{Q_{n-1}}$ Type, Drinfel'd Approach
In addition to the expected examples of the modular versions of Lie superalgebras of vector f ields, and the queer analog of the gl series, there are – for p = 2 – numerous (and hitherto unexpected) queerif ications, see .
Classification of Finite Dimensional Modular Lie Superalgebras with Indecomposable Cartan Matrix
In the text-book [Ls] it is demonstrated that there are two superizations of gl(n): a naive one, gl(n|m), and the “queer” one, q(n) which preserves an “odd” complex structure.
Infinitesimal deformations of symmetric simple modular Lie algebras and Lie superalgebras
Frisk, Typical blocks of the category O for the queer Lie superalgebra. J.
Degenerate Affine Hecke-Clifford Algebras and Type $Q$ Lie Superalgebras
Zhao, Representations of Lie Superalgebras in Prime Characteristic II: The Queer Series.
Degenerate Affine Hecke-Clifford Algebras and Type $Q$ Lie Superalgebras
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