Word.ws English Dictionary

Queen's shilling

Queen's shilling is the alternative form of King's shilling.

Meaning of King's shilling

Noun

King's shilling (plural King's shillings)

  1. (UK, historical) A shilling accepted by new recruits when agreeing to or tricked into enlisting into the British army or navy during the 18th and 19th centuries.
    • I have taken the King's shilling, but perhaps if you came for me they would let me go back with you. I was a fool when I did it. I don't want to be in the army.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 182
  2. (figuratively) The benefits and rewards of military service.

Forms of Queen's shilling

pluralQueen's shillings

Questions about Queen's shilling

What is Queen's shilling the alternative form of?
Queen's shilling is the alternative form of King's shilling.

Words near Queen's shilling in the dictionary

  1. queen's pudding
  2. queen's rook's pawn
  3. queen's rook's pawns
  4. Queen's Scout
  5. Queen's Scouts
  6. Queen's shilling
  7. Queen's shillings
  8. Queen's speech
  9. Queen's speeches
  10. Queen's tobacco-pipe
  11. queen-cage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Queen's shilling (page history and authors); King's shilling (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: “Queen's shilling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/queen%27s_shilling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.