queues

Noun

queue (plural queues)

1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, uncommon) A line of people, vehicles or other objects, usually one to be dealt with in sequence (i.e., the one at the front end is dealt with first, the one behind is dealt with next, and so on), and which newcomers join at the opposite end (the back).
   • I was absent-minded at the moment and was last in the queue.1916, John Buchan, “Chapter 5”, in Greenmantle

   Synonyms:

   line, lineup

2. A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.
3. A data structure in which objects are added to one end, called the tail, and removed from the other, called the head (in the case of a FIFO queue). The term can also refer to a LIFO queue or stack where these ends coincide.
   • Queue implementations are commonly based on insertion order as in first-in, first-out (FIFO) queues or last-in, first-out queues (LIFO queues are also known as stacks).2005, David Flanagan, Java in a Nutshell, p. 234
4. An animal's tail.
   • HESSE: Az., a lion, queue fourchée, rampt., barry of ten, arg. and gu., crowned, or, and holding in his dexter paw a sword, ppr., hilt and pommel, gold.1863, Charles Boutell, A Manual of Heraldry, page 369
5. (historical) A men's hairstyle with a braid or ponytail at the back of the head, such as that worn by men in Imperial China.
   • In the morning and evening, spruce Chinamen stroll about or chat at each other's doors, in blue trousers, white jacket, and a queue into which red silk is plaited till it reaches almost to their heels.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 213

See all 10 meanings of queue