1787. Burns, To the Guidwife of Wauchope House. I see her yet, the sonsie quean That lighted up my jingle. Ibid. (1791), Tam O'Shanter. Now Tam, 0 Tam! had there been queans A' plump and strapping in their teens. Ibid., Merry Muses (c.1800), "Wha'll Mow Me Noo." An' I maun thole the scornful sneer O' mony a saucy quine.
1822. Scott, Nigel, iii. I was disturbed with some of the night-walking queans and swaggering billies.
Queasy, adj. (old: now recognised).—Qualmish;
squeamish.—B.
E. (c.1696).
Queed, subs. (old).—The devil:
set Skipper.—Bailey (1726).
Queen. Where the Queen GOES ON FOOT (or sends no-body), phr. (common).—A water-*closet: see Mrs. Jones.
Queen Anne. Queen Anne
(Queen Elizabeth, My Lord
Baldwin (Ray, 1670)—or any
personage whose decease is well-known)
is dead, phr. (old).—A
retort on stale news: also
Queen Anne is dead and her
bottom's cold. Whence (in
quot. 1753) Queen Elizabeth's
women = ensigns of antiquity.
Cf. News. Fr. C'est vieux
comme le Pont-Neuf; Henri
Quatre est sur le Pont-Neuf.
c.1619. Bp Corlet, Elegy on Death of Queen Anne [of Denmark, Consort of Jas. I.] Noe; not a quatch, sad poets; doubt you There is not griefe enough without you? Or that it will asswage ill newes To say, Shee's dead that was your muse.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversations, i. Lady Smart. . . . What news Mr. Neverout? Neverout. Why, Madam, Queen Elizabeth's dead.
1753. Richardson, Grandison, i. 296. We will leave the modern world to themselves, and be Queen Elizabeth's women.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Account of a New Play.' Lord Brougham, it appears, isn't dead, though Queen Anne is.
1859. Thackeray, Virginians, lxxiii. 'He was my grandfather's man, and served him in the wars of Queen Anne.' . . . On which my lady cried petulantly, 'Oh Lord, Queen Anne's dead, I suppose, and we ain't a going into mourning for her.
Queen Anne's Fan, subs. phr.
(old).—A sight (q.v.): see
Bacon, Thumb, and Fig.
Queen Bess, subs. phr. (old).—See quot. and Ned Stokes.
1791. Gent. Mag., lxi. 141. The Queen of Clubs is here [Lincolnshire] called Queen Bess, perhaps because that Queen, history says, was of a swarthy complexion.
Queen City, subs. phr. (American).—Cincinnati:
also Porkopolis
and The Paris of America.
d.1882. Longfellow [Bartlett]. This song of the vine . . . The winds and the birds shall deliver To the Queen of the West.
Queen City of the Lakes, subs.
phr. (America).—Buffalo.
Queen City of the Mississippi,
subs. phr. (American).—St. Louis.
Queen Dick, subs. phr. (old).—Nobody. Hence, in the reign of Queen Dick = Never; to the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick = no tune at all.—Grose (1785).
English synonyms.—At Latter Lammas; (see Lammas); on the Greek Calends (q.v.); on St. Tib's Eve (see Tib's Eve); on to-morrow-come-never; in the month of five Sundays; when two Fridays (or three Sundays) come together; when Dover and Calais meet; when
