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duke

Pronunciation: /dʒuːk/

The English word “duke” has 9 meanings listed here.

noun

  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.
  4. A grand duke.
  5. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genera Bassarona and Dophla.
  6. A fist.

verb

  1. To hit or beat with the fists.
  2. To give cash to; to give a tip to.
  3. To perform the duties of, or rule over as, a duke.

Etymology

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. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-, which is also the source of the second component in German Herzog. The “fist” sense is thought to be Cockney rhyming slang where…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.