Word.ws English Dictionary

muscle queen

muscle queen noun: an especially muscular gay man who works out, usually for sex appeal.

Noun

muscle queen (plural muscle queens)

  1. (derogatory, slang) An especially muscular gay man who works out, usually for sex appeal.
    • He’d been labeled “gay” in my mind from the beginning. It wasn’t like he was a swishy queen. He was a muscle queen. Don’t muscle queens pass for straight? Our waitress at the Bluebird had flirted with him. She hadn’t seen him as gay.2002, Greg Herren, chapter 16, in Murder in the Rue Dauphine, Alyson Books, page 151
    • American flags are hung alongside rainbow flags, middleclass families stand alongside shirtless muscle queens. It is a harmonious, almost surreal confluence of the gay and straight worlds.2003, Peter Manso, chapter 3, in Ptown: Art, Sex, and Money on the Outer Cape, Scribner, page 16
  2. (broadly) A man who is attracted to bodybuilders or muscular men.
    • I’ve got it,” said Dave. “You’re a muscle queen.”
      You mean I'm sort of a hunk? I think I’ve got quite a ways to go,” I demurred.
      “No, I mean you crave them muscles. I can see those pretty green eyes of yours bug out when you see some bulky, misshapen things at the gym that I would toss out of bed...1989, David B. Feinberg, chapter 8, in Eighty-Sixed, Viking Penguin, page 93
    • But Daniel was never any good at hiding his staring, especially when it came to guys like Adam Becker. Daniel sat with his legs crossed lady-style and just drooled over Adam. “I’m a muscle queen,” he whispered to me, leaning across the aisle. He gestured at Adam’s back and asked, “How about you?”2013, Michael John Harris, chapter 2, in Homo, James Lorimer Books, page 14

Examples of muscle queen in a sentence

  • You could be out at the gym feeling great about yourself when some muscle queen with a three-percent body fat ratio catches your eye and paranoia strikes a home run.2008, Jeffrey Round, chapter 36, in The P-town Murders, Cormorant Books, page 261:
  • He’s a muscle queen, with bulging biceps and abs as taut as guitar strings.2009, Neil S. Plakcy, chapter 2, in Mahu Vice, Alyson Books, page 12:
  • Gay men who work out a lot are often referred to as muscle queens or gym queens and, if they fly around the country to dance all night to circuit techno music, circuit queens.2011, Kathy Belge, Marke Bieschke, chapter 1, in Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens, Zest Books, page 13:
  • “A muscle queen is into guys with muscles; a size queen is into—you know.”2019, Caleb Crain, chapter 6, in Overthrow, Viking Penguin, page 250:

Forms of muscle queen

pluralmuscle queens
alternative formmuscle-queen
alternative formMuscle Queen

Questions about muscle queen

What does muscle queen mean?
Muscle queen means an especially muscular gay man who works out, usually for sex appeal.
How do you use muscle queen in a sentence?
You could be out at the gym feeling great about yourself when some muscle queen with a three-percent body fat ratio catches your eye and paranoia strikes a home run.
What part of speech is muscle queen?
Muscle queen is a noun.
What is the plural of muscle queen?
The plural of muscle queen is muscle queens.

Words near muscle queen in the dictionary

  1. muscle morphs
  2. muscle of mastication
  3. muscle plum
  4. muscle plums
  5. muscle prism
  6. muscle queen
  7. muscle queens
  8. muscle reading
  9. muscle relaxant
  10. muscle relaxants
  11. muscle segment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: muscle queen (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “muscle queen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/muscle_queen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.