queue

queue¹ S3 [kju:] n

[Date: 1500-1600; : French; Origin: 'tail', from Latin cauda, coda]

1.) BrE a line of people waiting to enter a building, buy something etc, or a line of vehicles waiting to move

American Equivalent: linebe/stand/wait in a queue

▪ We stood in a queue for half an hour.

▪ You'll have to join the queue .

queue of

▪ a queue of people waiting for the bus

queue for

▪ the queue for the toilets

queue to do sth

▪ There was a long queue to get into the cinema.

the front/head/back/end of a queue

▪ At last we got to the front of the queue.

2.) BrE all the people who are waiting to have or get something

▪ You'll have to join the housing queue.

queue for

▪ the queue for kidney transplant operations

▪ It is possible to jump the queue (=get something before people who have been waiting longer) if you are prepared to pay for your treatment.

3.) technical a list of jobs that a computer has to do in a particular order

▪ the print queue

4.) a number of telephone calls to a particular number that are waiting to be answered

→the dole queue at ↑dole¹ (2)

queue ²

queue² also queue up v [i]BrE

1.) to form or join a line of people or vehicles waiting to do something or go somewhere

American Equivalent: line upqueue for

▪ Some of the people queuing for tickets had been there since dawn.

queue (up) to do sth

▪ We had to queue up for ages to get served.

2.) if people are queueing up to do something, they all want to do it very much

queue up to do sth

▪ The school is one of the best, and parents are queueing up to send their children there.

queue up for sth

▪ Actresses are queuing up for the part.