king: Meaning and Definition of

king

Pronunciation: (king), [key]
— n.
  1. a male sovereign or monarch; a man who holds by life tenure, and usually by hereditary right, the chief authority over a country and people.
  2. (cap.) God or Christ.
  3. a person or thing preeminent in its class: a king of actors.
  4. a playing card bearing a picture of a king.
  5. the chief piece of each color, whose checkmating is the object of the game; moved one square at a time in any direction.
  6. a piece that has been moved entirely across the board and has been crowned, thus allowing it to be moved in any direction.
  7. a fertile male termite.
  8. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter K.
—v.t.
  1. to make a king of; cause to be or become a king; crown.
  2. to design or make (a product) king-size: The tobacco company is going to king its cigarettes.
—v.i.
  1. to reign as king.
  2. to play the king; behave in an imperious or pretentious manner: He kinged it over all the other kids on the block.
—adj.
  1. king-size.

King

Pronunciation: (king), [key]
— n.
  1. born 1943, U.S. tennis player.
  2. 1842–1901, U.S. geologist and cartographer.
  3. 1878–1956, U.S. naval officer.
  4. 1929–68, U.S. Baptist minister: civil-rights leader; Nobel peace prize 1964.
  5. 1825–85, U.S. rancher and steamboat operator.
  6. (“B.B.”), born 1925, U.S. blues singer and guitarist.
  7. 1755–1827, U.S. political leader and statesman.
  8. born 1947, U.S. novelist and short-story writer.
  9. 1874–1950, Canadian statesman: prime minister 1921–26, 1926–30, 1935–48.
  10. 1786–1853, vice president of the U.S. 1853.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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