duke

From Old French duc, through Middle English duk, duke, from Latin dux, ducis. Displaced native Old English heretoga. Was present as duc in late Old English, from the same Latin source. Doublet of doge, duc, duce, and dux.

The “fist” sense is thought to be Cockney rhyming slang where “Duke(s) of York” = fork. Fork is itself Cockney slang for hand, and thus fist.^[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /djuːk/, /dʒuːk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d(j)uːk/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -uːk
• (yod-coalescence) Homophone: juke

duke (plural dukes)

1. The male ruler of a duchy (female equivalent: duchess).
2. The sovereign of a small state.
3. A high title of nobility; the male holder of a dukedom.

   Hypernyms: title, holder

   Hyponyms: duc (“French duke”), herzog (“German duke”)

   Coordinate terms: baron, count, countess, earl, marquis, marquess, viscount, prince, monarch

4. A grand duke.
5. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genera Bassarona and Dophla.
6. (slang, usually in the plural) A fist.

   Put up your dukes!

   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 438:

     “Your friend sure knows how to use his dukes. Biff, bang! One, two, and the copʼs on his ass!”

   • 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 19:

     "How did the sport go."
     "O sparred a few rounds. Let the instructor have a few on the button."
     "You must be tough."
     "I can handle my dukes."

duke (third-person singular simple present dukes, present participle duking, simple past and past participle duked)

1. (transitive, informal) To hit or beat with the fists.
   • 2003, John A. Dinan, Private Eyes in the Comics, →ISBN, page 65:

     It seems that PI Rainer was duked by his wife […] .

2. (slang, transitive) To give cash to; to give a tip to.

   Synonym: tip

   I duked him twenty dollars.

3. To perform the duties of, or rule over as, a duke.

• “duke, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

From older nduke.

• IPA^(key): [ˈdukɛ]

duke

1. A particle which precedes a participle to form a gerundive adverbial phrase.

   duke kënduar — (while) singing, by singing

• IPA^(key): /duke/ [d̪u.ke]
• Rhymes: -uke, -e
• Hyphenation: du‧ke

duke

1. (Northern or archaic) Third-person singular (hark), taking third-person singular (hura) as direct object, future indicative form of izan.

Linguistically, this verb form can be seen as belonging to the reconstructed citation form edun instead of izan.

Borrowed from Spanish duque.

• IPA^(key): /ˈduke/ [ˈd̪u.ke]
• Hyphenation: du‧ke

dúke (feminine dukesa, Basahan spelling ᜇᜓᜃᜒ)

1. duke

duke

1. alternative form of duk (“duke”)

duke (third-person singular simple present dukes, present participle dukin, simple past dukit, past participle dukit)

1. (intransitive) To cut into a queue, without permission.
2. (transitive) To cut into a queue in front of someone.

   Oi, dinnae duke us!

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Borrowed from Spanish duque (“duke”), from Old French duc, from Latin dux.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈduke/ [ˈd̪uː.xɛ]
• Rhymes: -uke
• Syllabification: du‧ke

duke (Baybayin spelling ᜇᜓᜃᜒ)

1. duke

• “duke”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018