Word.ws English Dictionary

queer

UK/kwɪə//kwɪɹ/

queer adjective: homosexual.

Adjective (1)

queer (comparative queerer, superlative queerest)

  1. (colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) Homosexual.
    • “Such a Momma’s boy.” The old men had started up again—or perhaps they had never stopped. “No matter who he schtupped. Even Marilyn. I wouldn’t be surprised he was queer.” / “Strange, yes. Weird, yes. Queer, I don’t think.”1979, Michael Nickolay, chapter 9, in Brother & Sister: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Company, →ISBN, page 100
    • This is a one-shot thing we got goin’ on here. […] You know I ain’t queer.2005, Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, directed by Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain, spoken by Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger)
  2. (colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) Non-heterosexual or non-cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.
  3. (broadly) Pertaining to sexual or gender behaviour or identity which does not conform to conventional heterosexual or cisgender norms, assumptions etc.
    • the queer community
    • If gender is no longer to be understood as consolidated through normative sexuality, then is there a crisis of gender that is specific to queer contexts?1999, Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, Routledge, published 2002, preface to 1999 edition
  4. (dated, humorous, often) Strange, odd, or different; whimsical.
    • An old long-faced, long-bodied servant, gave a queer look1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC
    • “I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 23–24
    Synonyms:
    aberrant, abnormal, alien, anomalous, as queer as Dick's hatband, bizarre, booky, curious, deviant, discrepant
  5. (UK, dated, informal) Slightly unwell.
    • I felt queer after eating those shrimp.
    • Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. … When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  6. (UK, dated, slang) Drunk.

Noun

queer (plural queers)

  1. (colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) A person who is or appears homosexual, or who has homosexual qualities.
    • Now that the first flush of this catastrophe and grief is passed, I write to tell you that it is a judgement on the whole lot of you. Montgomerys, The Snob Queers like [the Earl of] Rosebery & certainly Christian hypocrite [William Ewart] Gladstone [...]1894 November 1, John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, “[Letter from Queensbury to Alfred Montgomery, 1 Nov 1894, in the aftermath of the trial of Oscar Wilde]”, in Michael S. Foldy, editor, The...
    • [...] fourteen young men were invited [...] with the premise that they would have the opportunity of meeting some of the prominent 'queers,' [...] and the further attraction that some 'chickens' as the new recruits in the vice are called, would be available.1914 November, Eugene Fisher, “Transmittal to the Sacramento Bee [a.k.a Shakespeare Transmittal]”, in Sharon R. Ullman, editor, Sex Seen: The Emergence of Modern Sexuality in America, Berkeley and...
  2. (colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) A person of any non-heterosexual sexuality or sexual identity.
  3. (colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) A person of any genderqueer identity.
    • Gentrification often starts with the artists, revolutionaries, freaks, transfolks, and queers (what I would call my people) moving into poor neighborhoods inhabited by people of color.2014, Inga Muscio, Autobiography of a Blue-eyed Devil
  4. (archaic, informal, with-definite-article) Counterfeit money.
    • You're shoving the queer.1913, Rex Stout, Her Forbidden Knight, Carroll & Graf, published 1997, →ISBN, page 133
    Synonyms:
    funny money, snide

Verb

queer (third-person singular simple present queers, present participle queering, simple past and past participle queered)

  1. (dated, transitive) To render an endeavor or agreement ineffective or null.
    • I was a lot more apt to queer it than help it.1955, Rex Stout, "When a Man Murders...", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, page 78
  2. (UK, dated, dialectal) To puzzle.
    • "But lor-a-mussy, Jacob, how could a woman get away from here with all her boxes in the middle of the night?"
      "That's what queered me," and Spink slowly shook his head, "and queered a good many; for of course it got newsed about […]"1887, G. W. Appelton, chapter II, in A Terrible Legacy: A Tale of the South Downs, London: Ward and Downey, page 12
    • "Where do you come from?" Stanley queered.1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud; A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter V...
  3. (dated, slang) To ridicule; to banter; to rally.
  4. (dated, slang) To spoil the effect or success of, as by ridicule; to throw a wet blanket on; to spoil.
    • "Food is what queered the party. We ordered a big supper to be sent up to the room about two o'clock. Alec didn't give the waiter a tip, so I guess the little bastard snitched."1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, Book Two, Chapter IV, pages 270-271
    • Well, then I got buried—shell dropped, and the dug-out caved in—and that queered me. They sent me home.1926, D. H. Lawrence, “Glad Ghosts”, in The Complete Short Stories, volume 3, Penguin, published 1977, page 678
  5. To reevaluate or reinterpret (a work) with an eye to sexual orientation and/or to gender, as by applying queer theory.
    • If I go, for instance, to the history of the church in Latin America, and decide to queer the history of the Jesuitic Missions, I may find that, in many ways, the missions were more sexual than Christian.2003, Marcella Althaus-Reid, The Queer God, page 9
    • Jonathan Goldberg further explores the implications of queering history in his essay in the same volume.2006, Carla Freccero, Queer/Early/Modern, page 80
    Synonyms:
    queerify
  6. (neologism, slang) To make a work more appealing or attractive to LGBT people, such as by not having strict genders for playable characters.

Adverb

queer (not generally comparable, comparative more queer, superlative most queer)

  1. (not comparable, usually) Queerly.
  2. (Ireland, not comparable, usually) Very, extremely.
    • Twas a queer bachram in the pub that night!
    • Ah, but she was the queer old skeowsha anyhow, Anna Livia, trinkettoes!”1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
    Synonyms:
    mighty, wicked

Adjective (2) capitalized: Queer

Queer (not comparable)

  1. (US) Of or relating to the culture surrounding queer people.

queer meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Punjabi

queer in Tamil

pertaining to non-normative sexuality
குயர் kuyar, பால்புது pālputu, பால்புதுமை pālputumai
slang: person of atypical sexuality or sexual identity
குயர் kuyar, பால்புதுமையினர் pālputumaiyiṉar

queer in Urdu

عجیب, انوکھا, بے ڈھنگا, بیمار, غیر مالوف, خبطی

queer in Malayalam

അസാധാരണമായ, അരക്കിറുക്കനായ, തലചുറ്റുന്ന

queer in Punjabi

ਕੁਈਅਰ
More languagesFewer languages
queer in Nepali
क्वीर, क्वियर
queer in Arabic
كْوِير kwīr
queer in Malay
kuira
queer in Indonesian
homo, maho, hombreng, kwir

Examples of queer in a sentence

  • “’Tis a queer book - here, leave me git on my spectacles - ” The old man fumbled among his rags, producing a pair of dirty and amazingly antique glasses (...)1920, H. P. Lovecraft, The Picture in the House:
  • A queer look came over John Arable's face.1952, E. B. White, Charlotte's Web, page 3:
  • When the lights popped out, when the smoke began to clear / It was positively queer1971, David Bowie, “Bombers”:
  • "Well, I'm—I'm jiggered," said Peter, and his voice also sounded queer.1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia:

Synonyms of queer

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of queer

Forms of queer

Adjective
comparativequeerer
superlativequeerest
alternative formqwer
Noun
pluralqueers
Verb
third-person singular presentqueers
present participlequeering
past participlequeered
pastqueered
Adverb
comparativemore queer
superlativemost queer

Origin of queer

Attested since about 1510, at first in Scots. Usually taken to be from Middle Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer (“oblique, off-centre”) or the related German quer (“diagonal”), from Old Saxon thwerh, from Proto-West Germanic *þwerh, from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to turn, twist, wind”); compare Latin torqueō, and see more at thwart. The OED argues against this due to the semantic differences and the date at which the word appears in Scots. Began to be used to describe gay people in the late 1800s; see usage notes for more.

From queer.

Words formed from queer

Phrases with queer

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with queer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about queer

What does queer mean?
Queer means homosexual.
What is queer in Tamil?
Queer in Tamil is குயர் (kuyar), பால்புது (pālputu), பால்புதுமை (pālputumai). See Queer meaning in Tamil.
How do you use queer in a sentence?
“’Tis a queer book - here, leave me git on my spectacles - ” The old man fumbled among his rags, producing a pair of dirty and amazingly antique glasses (...)
What part of speech is queer?
Queer can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or an adverb.
How do you pronounce queer?
Queer is pronounced /kwɪə/ (UK).

Words near queer in the dictionary

  1. Queequeg
  2. Queequeg syndrome
  3. Queequegs
  4. queequehatch
  5. queequehatches
  6. queer
  7. queer anarchism
  8. queer anarchist
  9. queer anarchists
  10. queer as a clockwork orange
  11. queer as a coot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: queer (page history and authors); Queer (page history and authors); queer (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); queer (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); queer (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); queer (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-queer.ogg.

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