queers

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...
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

See all 19 meanings of queer