Word.ws English Dictionary

Queer Street

Queer Street proper noun: a stunned condition.

Proper noun

Queer Street

  1. (idiomatic) A stunned condition.
    • In any event, the German slugger nailed down 21 of his 39 victories by putting his opponent on Queer Street via the knockout route.1957 August 10, “Cronin's Corner”, in Los Angeles Times
    • Frazier had him on Queer Street in the 11th round. ... He was glad he got off Queer Street.1971 March 9, “In the Wake of the News”, in Chicago Tribune
  2. (UK, dated, idiomatic) A difficult circumstance, especially bankruptcy; hard times.
    • But soon they led a Queer-street life, / 'Twas what she'd not expected / Like cat and dog, with snarl and strife, / And love and lamps neglected. / About his work he would not wag1818, Thomas Hudson, Comic Songs, page 23
    • He is one of those men who have overshot their true generation. He should have been a buck in the days of the Regency—a boxer, an athlete, a plunger on the Turf, a lover of fair ladies, and, by all account, so far down Queer Street that he may never find his way back again.1927 March 5, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place”, in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published June 1927, →OCLC, page 277
  3. (UK, dated, idiomatic) Suspicious circumstances.
    • I found the wadding of the pistol with which the deceased Mr. Tulkinghorn was shot. It was a bit of the printed description of your house at Chesney Wold. Not much in that, you'll say, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet. No. But when my foreign friend here is so thoroughly off her guard as to think it...1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC

Examples of Queer Street in a sentence

  • The only reason Ms Beverley-Stevenson and her two companies are in business is to make a profit, otherwise she and her partners would be on Queer Street.2009 March 17, “The dangers of commerce in medical care”, in Yorkshire Post:
  • Bucket puts the pieces together and finds the wadding wanting, it begins to look like Queer Street.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

Origin of Queer Street

Unknown

Questions about Queer Street

What does Queer Street mean?
Queer Street means a stunned condition.
How do you use Queer Street in a sentence?
The only reason Ms Beverley-Stevenson and her two companies are in business is to make a profit, otherwise she and her partners would be on Queer Street.
What part of speech is Queer Street?
Queer Street is a proper noun.

Words near Queer Street in the dictionary

  1. queer kens
  2. queer liberation
  3. queer parade
  4. queer parades
  5. queer someone's pitch
  6. Queer Street
  7. queer studies
  8. queer theoretical
  9. queer theory
  10. queer up
  11. queer-baiting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Queer Street (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-Queer Street.ogg.

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