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Cue   Listen
noun
Cue  n.  
1.
The tail; the end of a thing; especially, a tail-like twist of hair worn at the back of the head; a queue.
2.
The last words of a play actor's speech, serving as an intimation for the next succeeding player to speak; any word or words which serve to remind a player to speak or to do something; a catchword. "When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer."
3.
A hint or intimation. "Give them (the servants) their cue to attend in two lines as he leaves the house."
4.
The part one has to perform in, or as in, a play. "Were it my cueto fight, I should have known it Without a prompter."
5.
Humor; temper of mind. (Colloq.)
6.
A straight tapering rod used to impel the balls in playing billiards.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cue" Quotes from Famous Books



... important facts in regard to Madame Duclos, but he equally hated to admit that for all his haste in following up the clue given him, he knew as little as ever of her present whereabouts; and hated even worse to have to give the cue which would lead to a surveillance, however secret, over a house which held a child of so sensitive and tremulous a nature as that of the little friend who had picked up his stick in ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green

... stronger in reprobation of this particular war. True, it might be urged, that the South, and not the North, both furnished the casus belli, and began the actual hostilities by the assault upon Fort Sumter; but it was not the cue of Southern partisans to admit that this internal action of certain sovereign States of the Union was of a nature to justify coercive war on the part of the North, while the fact that it rested ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 • Various

... you must draw your pen Not once or twice, but o'er and o'er again, Through what you've written, if you would entice The man who reads you once to read you twice, Not making popular applause your cue, But looking to find audience fit though ...
— Horace • Theodore Martin

... kind,' said Urmand. 'But I don't exactly see what we are to talk about.' Michel, however, paid no attention to this, but walked slowly out of the room. 'I really don't know what there is to say,' continued Urmand, as he knocked the balls about with his cue. ...
— The Golden Lion of Granpere • Anthony Trollope

... close by, waiting for him to speak to her, and his eyes fixed themselves upon her face with a sort of cold and snakelike admiration, to which she was well accustomed, but which even now made her nervous. The Ambassador was not slow to take up the cue of flattery, for Englishmen still knew how to flatter in ...
— In The Palace Of The King - A Love Story Of Old Madrid • F. Marion Crawford

... backing up Dominick," said the other. "But when you took the men's part and laid down the law to him on the grub question you gave them their cue for general rebellion. Ten chances to one the padrone has done as he agreed. I reckon you scared him enough for that. Now they're probably around with knives looking for napkins and sparkling red wine. I tell you, Parker, you're inviting trouble ...
— The Rainy Day Railroad War • Holman Day

... physician named Thomas Weir. The next year Weir persuaded James II to grant him letters patent for the pills. Whether he did this to protect himself against competition that already had begun, or whether the patenting gave a cue to those always ready to cut themselves in on a good thing, cannot be said for sure. The last years of the 17th century, at any rate, saw the commencement of a spirited rivalry among various makers of Anderson's Scots Pills that was long ...
— Old English Patent Medicines in America • George B. Griffenhagen

... their heads shaved, with the exception of a small patch at the back, the hair on which is carefully cultivated and plaited into a cue. The thicker and longer this cue is, the prouder is its owner; false hair and black ribbon are consequently worked up in it, so that it often reaches down to the ankles. During work, it is twisted round the neck, ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

... of bonds formed, of readiness of certain tracts, no willing, no attention on the part of the thinker, would ever bring about analysis. This is made very vivid when one is met by a problem he cannot solve. If the situation does not break up, if the right element does not emerge, if the right cue is not given, he is helpless. All he can do is to hold fast to his problem and wait. As the associations are offered, he can select and reject, but that is all. The marvelous power of the genius, the inventor, the reasoner in all fields, is merely an exhibition of the ...
— How to Teach • George Drayton Strayer and Naomi Norsworthy

... and I get tired of the Big Town—tired of its noises and hullabaloo; tired of being tagged by taxis as we cross a street; tired of watching grocers and butchers hoisting higher the highest cost of living—that's our cue to grab a choo-choo and breeze out to Uncle Peter Grant's farm and bungalow in the wilds of Westchester, ...
— You Should Worry Says John Henry • George V. Hobart

... in the dark,' whispered Lawford, as if at a cue, turning with an inscrutable smile ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare

... speak with becoming moderation of such stuff as this; and it is really pathetic to see the dominant opinion of whole sections of the country taking its cue from men who assume superior airs and rebuke the presumption of thinking on the part of some millions of Americans, while they peddle such insufferable nonsense as this just quoted from Mr. Carlisle. ...
— The Arena - Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897 • Various

... "That's it!" he said. "Now that you look closer. You'll have to grow observant: observation is an excellent quality in a servant. Wheat you come into a room in future, look first of all at me—and take your cue from that. Remember that serving a man with nerves is like serving two masters. Now you can go; and tell Mrs. Chilcote's maid that I shall be quite ready at a ...
— The Masquerader • Katherine Cecil Thurston

... It was the cue of the Tory Press at this moment to excite prejudice against the Liberals by representing them as the bondslaves of the "dollar dictator"—ordered about by an Irish autocrat with swollen money-bags from New York. This ...
— John Redmond's Last Years • Stephen Gwynn

... promises which it is impossible to perform, and the public, which has conceived hopes which can never be realised, two classes of men interpose—the ambitious and the Utopians. It is circumstances which give these their cue. It is enough if these vassals of popularity cry out to the people—"The authorities are deceiving you; if we were in their place, we would load you with benefits and exempt ...
— Essays on Political Economy • Frederic Bastiat

... of plum-colored velvet, trimmed with gold lace. White satin waistcoat. White stock, and lace jabot, and sleeve-ruffles. Black shoes with gold buckles. Black stockings. White powdered wig worn in a cue. ...
— Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People • Constance D'Arcy Mackay

... kept at the oars to hold the cutters in position, and the first man wounded was one of these. No one else in the boat knew it, however, till he fainted in his seat from loss of blood. Others took the cue from this, and there was not a groan or a complaint from the two boats, as the bullets, that were coming thicker and faster every minute, ...
— The Boys of '98 • James Otis

... quoth the little officer, clapping the palm of one hand softly against the back of the other. 'The emphasis was just, and the enunciation clear. A little further back towards the wings, corporal, if you please. Thank you! Now, Dick, it is your cue.' ...
— Micah Clarke - His Statement as made to his three Grandchildren Joseph, - Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 • Arthur Conan Doyle

... Suttles, 302 U.S. 277, 283-284 (1937). Although other interpretive decisions of federal courts are unavailable, many State courts, taking their cue from pronouncements of the Supreme Court as to the operative effect of the similarly phrased Fifteenth Amendment, have proclaimed that the Nineteenth Amendment did not confer upon women the right to vote but only ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... said he, 'you are a lucky man—for he that is talking to you is Michael Dunne, who knows how to make his way out of any jail in Ireland.' Saying this, he sprung with great activity from the bed. 'It is my cue,' said he, 'to be sick and weak, whenever the turnkey comes in, to put him off his guard—for they have all orders to watch me strictly; because as how, do you see, I broke out of the jail of Trim; and when they catched me, they took me before his honour the police magistrate, who did ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth

... a hundred millions to the descendants of our slaves. We were also nearly half a century in abolishing the traffic, after it had been denounced as robbery and murder by our highest and greatest statesmen, Pitt and Fox[3]. This slowness of our work has given the cue to the suspicions of our national enemies; and, certainly, to use a gross vulgarism, has "taken out the shine," or very much dimmed the lustre of this great act of justice to ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson

... was extremely prone. Inasmuch as he could see how things ought to be done, he could not understand why they were not done in that way at once, for he had a fine forgetfulness of other people's difficulties, as is the case with most of us. The New England representatives generally took their cue from these two, especially James Lovell, who carried his ideas into action, and obtained a little niche in the temple of fame by making himself disagreeably conspicuous in the intrigue against the ...
— George Washington, Vol. I • Henry Cabot Lodge

... a game of billiards, and refuse a cigar, a very formidable cigar, very black and very thick and very long. I don't smoke, and am no hand at a cue. Besides, I want to talk about Etoiles Mortes, about Les Trepassees de Francois ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier

... purely mechanical, instinctive, unreflective life. There is nothing more deplorable than the small extent to which reflection and volition really shape the lives of the bulk of mankind. Most of us take our cue from our circumstances, letting them dominate us. They tell us that in Nature there is such a thing as protective mimicry, as it is called-animals having the power—some of them to a much larger ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... Constans." He spoke impatiently, being anxious to get back to his book. He glanced at it longingly, and she, who, as it afterwards appeared, had a part to play, took the cue. ...
— The Doomsman • Van Tassel Sutphen

... the Dunns were not openly hostile. And Caroline was. Since the interview in the library, when the girl had, as she considered it, humiliated herself by asking her guardian for money to help the Moriartys, she had scarcely spoken to him. Stephen, taking his cue from his sister, was morose and silent, also. Captain Elisha found it hard to forgive his dead brother for bringing ...
— Cap'n Warren's Wards • Joseph C. Lincoln

... her proper cue, but the brown lady merely offered a chair and sat down silently. Mrs. Cresswell's perplexity increased. She had been planning to descend graciously but authoritatively upon some shrinking girl, but this ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois

... she was in hiding behind a piece of scenery, eagerly awaiting the cue for her own entrance; yet she was as keenly intent upon each detail of the acting taking place upon the stage as if tonight it ...
— The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World • Margaret Vandercook

... rehearsed effect. Miss Rounsell, taking her cue, struck the key-board, and as Miss Charity Oliver (in the front row) testified next morning, "the effect was electric." All sprang to their feet and sang the chorus of Rule, Britannia! till ...
— Nicky-Nan, Reservist • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)

... the public, it also moulds it; and its conservative attitude is doubtless to a very considerable degree responsible for the tone of opinion which prevailed here up to recent years. Papers throughout the State naturally take their cue from the party organs published at the capital, while the few papers identified with no party are wont to adapt themselves even more carefully to popular ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... or openly unkind to his ward, and ungenerous persecution was utterly incompatible with the temper and habits of his lady wife, but between them they had contrived to make the girl's life very miserable. It was Winston's cue—adopted, let us hope, from the strict sense of duty he avowed had ever actuated him in his treatment of the charge bequeathed him by his father—to deport himself with calm, seldom-relaxed severity to one who had showed herself to be entirely unworthy ...
— At Last • Marion Harland

... way, and after one or two rapid glances at the subject of her cares and a moment's reflection on her introduction there, she took her cue. "Blushes like that are not for nothing," thought Arles; "and when Mr. Macintosh says 'Do your best'—why, it is easy ...
— The Old Helmet, Volume I • Susan Warner

... Everything depends on the moment. He will know why I'm here, and whether he is glad or sorry or displeased at my coming, I shall know instantly. I shall then have my cue. It's absurd, this notion of his, and why let it rule him and me! I've always got what I wanted, and I'm going to get Geoffrey. A Queen of a Nation must propose to a suitor, so why not a Queen of Money to a man less rich than she—especially when she is convinced ...
— In Her Own Right • John Reed Scott

... bullet buried itself in the thick, soft bark of the chestnut, just above Fortner's head, and threw dust and chips in his eyes. He brushed them away angrily, and instinctively raised his rifle. Kent took this as his cue to fire, but his aim was even worse ...
— The Red Acorn • John McElroy

... I saw my cue. The castle was enchanted to me, not to her. It would be wasted time to try to argue her out of her delusion, it couldn't be done; I must just humor it. So ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... the encroachment of Negroes on their field of labor the northerners took their cue from the white mechanics in the South. At first laborers of both races worked together in the same room and at the same machine.[1] But in the nineteenth century, when more white men in the South were condescending ...
— The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 • Carter Godwin Woodson

... loving heart of woman, and such an one as you, never!" he answered, following her cue and looking ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny

... askance at the editor, as a prompter watches the actor to see if he is ready to take his cue. ...
— Cinderella - And Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis

... the front entrance," answered the nurse, grimly. She was ready to play up to whatever cue Bonnie gave her. ...
— The Witness • Grace Livingston Hill Lutz

... While he worked with a half dozen other men as a section hand on the railroad, two men did all the talking. Whenever the boss went away an old man who had a reputation as a wit told stories concerning his relations with women. A young man with red hair took the cue from him. The two men talked loudly and kept looking at Hugh. The younger of the two wits turned to another workman who had a weak, timid face. "Well, you," he cried, "what about your old woman? What about her? Who is the father of your son? ...
— Poor White • Sherwood Anderson

... Ford took his cue promptly. "We can go out the other way," he said; and the secretary pro tempore ...
— Empire Builders • Francis Lynde

... meantime, if our project succeed no better with his father than it does with his mistress, he may descend from his exaltation of madness into the road of common sense, and be content only to be made a fool with other reasonable people. I hear Sir Sampson. You know your cue; I'll to ...
— Love for Love • William Congreve

... with that," mused Joe. "I went over every inch of it. I guess Helen is just nervous. Well, there goes my cue!" ...
— Joe Strong The Boy Fire-Eater - The Most Dangerous Performance on Record • Vance Barnum

... two sailors, taking their cue from Frank, also reached for their weapons. Captain Jack, though realizing on the instant what these movements ...
— The Boy Allies with Uncle Sams Cruisers • Ensign Robert L. Drake

... be spoken of as the original charter member of the Concord School of Philosophy. Her theme was the New Thought, for New Thought is the oldest form of thought of which we know. Its distinguishing feature is its antiquity. Socrates was really the first to express the New Thought, and he got his cue from Pythagoras. ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard

... hesitation or effort anyone of an amazingly long list. With little prompting she could recite some of the longest narrative poems in Latin literature and she needed prompting only to give her the cue words at the beginning of each book and of ...
— The Unwilling Vestal • Edward Lucas White

... course we do not desire to go into details. We are no play writer, but we know what takes. People have got tired of imitation blood on the stage. They kick on seeing a man killed in one act, and come out as good as new in the next. Any good play writer can take the cue from this article and give the country a play ...
— Peck's Compendium of Fun • George W. Peck

... men, children, and squaws. And now, as Le Jeune took his place in the circle, the sorcerer bent upon him his malignant eyes, and began that course of rude bantering which filled to overflowing the cup of the Jesuit's woes. All took their cue from him, and made their afflicted guest the butt of their inane witticisms. "Look at him! His face is like a dog's!"—"His head is like a pumpkin!"— "He has a beard like a rabbit's!" The missionary bore in silence these ...
— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman

... their cue; and when he appeared amongst them, not one seemed to know him. He was taken into companies where his character was discussed before him, and his wonderful escape spoken of. At last he was introduced to the very officer of the provost-marshal who had taken him into custody, and who told ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... cue from the sun, Peter Clubfoot. It's always shining, no matter if the clouds are so thick underneath that we can't see it. A laugh never hurts a man, unless ...
— The Country Beyond - A Romance of the Wilderness • James Oliver Curwood

... addressed me gave me an uncomfortable sensation; then his poverty-stricken appearance and his furtive glances filled me with suspicion. I looked at my host, who was standing near, thinking to take my cue from the expression of his face; but it was only a stolid Oriental face that revealed nothing. An ancient rule in whist is to play trumps when in doubt; now my rule of action is, when two courses are open to me and I am in ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson

... Monsieur Gerardy, "you left out the cue." He became painfully polite. "Give the speech once more, ...
— The Pit • Frank Norris

... taking their cue from the intellectual subserviency demanded of them by the ruling propertied classes, delight in picturing those times as "the good old times," when the capitalists were benevolent and amiable, and the workers ...
— Great Fortunes from Railroads • Gustavus Myers

... but he was no match for the father of Jonesville, who wielded a cue with a dexterity born of years of devotion to the game. In consequence, Blaze's enjoyment was in a fair way to languish when the proprietor of the Elite Billiard Parlor ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach

... But they do not turn their heads. Each with his hand resting on the shoulder of the man in front they go steadily on, towards the concert-room, with an odd intentness, glancing neither to one side nor the other. For though, at their leader's cue, they have hailed the Matron, they have not seen ...
— Observations of an Orderly - Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital • Ward Muir

... between them, had nursed it with grief and solicitude, had borne it to the plot of land where the little graves were crowded so closely. Mr. Briggs complacently avoided dates and age and the minuter details. He even pleaded the case, having caught a cue from Colonel Dodd; his record left the impression that Walker Farr, who had come from nowhere—nobody knew when—had lived in Marion unknown and unnoticed at the time when he had compassed the ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day

... amended, is retired to her constant employment, writing. I must content myself with the same amusement, till she shall be pleased to admit me to her presence: for already have I given to every one her cue. ...
— Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... quite as if Amerigo himself were all the while, at bottom, equally thinking of it and watching it. But, as against that, he was making her father not miss her, and he could have rendered neither of them a more excellent service. He was acting in short on a cue, the cue given him by observation; it had been enough for him to see the shade of change in her behaviour; his instinct for relations, the most exquisite conceivable, prompted him immediately to meet and match the difference, to play somehow into its hands. ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James

... perverted by the pruderies and prejudices which are so diligently instilled into them, understand the art of love more readily than men. Even when little more than children they can often completely take the cue that is given to them. Much more than is the case with men, at all events under civilized conditions, the art of love is with them an art that Nature makes. They always know more of love, as Montaigne long since said, than men can teach them, for it is a discipline ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... off—I'm going sketching.' Her eyes plainly added, 'with Ingersoll Armour,' but she as obviously shrank from the roughness of pitching him in that unconsidered way before us. For some reason I refrained from taking the cue. I would not lug him ...
— The Pool in the Desert • Sara Jeannette Duncan

... an adventurer? This problem was long unsolved. The diplomatic salons, faithful to instructions, imitated the silence of the Emperor Nicholas, who held that all Polish exiles were virtually dead and buried. The court of the Tuileries, and all who took their cue from it, gave striking proof of the political quality which was then dignified by the name of sagacity. They turned their backs on a Russian prince with whom they had all been on intimate terms during the Emigration, ...
— Paz - (La Fausse Maitresse) • Honore de Balzac

... discovered a new definition of disloyalty. He considers my suggestion to boycott the visit of the Prince of Wales to be disloyal and some newspapers taking the cue from him have called persons who have made the suggestion 'unmannerly'. They have even attributed to these 'unmannerly' persons the suggestion of boycotting the Prince. I draw a sharp and fundamental distinction between boycotting the Prince and boycotting ...
— Freedom's Battle - Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present Situation • Mahatma Gandhi

... when one has the cue—it's immensely simple. We know exactly what happened and the sort of crooks that were about the business. The barefoot prints show the Continental group. That's the trick of Southern Europe to go in barefoot behind a man to ...
— The Sleuth of St. James's Square • Melville Davisson Post

... entrepreneur should bear the same name as the Calcutta judge who had unsuccessfully sought her hand. But Lola experienced no qualms. As she stood at the wings, in a black satin bodice and much flounced pink silk skirt, waiting for her cue, Lumley passed her with a nod ...
— The Magnificent Montez - From Courtesan to Convert • Horace Wyndham

... where he was knocking balls about, rather at haphazard. "Why, of course you can work. What about these new cantonments we're building all over the country? You ought to be useful there. They don't want 'em pretty, tho." And Terry had laughed. But he put down his cue and ...
— Dangerous Days • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... whenever he had wanted money, he had sent to his father for it, and had got it. Dawson's question made the reality of his position—moneyless, resourceless, friendless—burst over him like a waterspout. Dawson saw and understood; but it was not his cue to lessen that sense ...
— The Second Generation • David Graham Phillips

... Taking his cue from the Spaniard, Dick related what he had noted at the coaling wharf and learned about the movements of the tug when the auxiliary cruiser was in the neighborhood. His account to some extent filled the gaps that Don Sebastian's narrative ...
— Brandon of the Engineers • Harold Bindloss

... this was a bomb plot? Some sort of bunk was being put over here—no gettin' away from that. And if one of our shell factories was in danger of being dynamited, here was my cue to make a medal ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford

... could. He looked at the two women. Eh, by the Lord! there would be a scene. But the whole thing was too impudent a fraud: there must be an end of it. He caught Fra Corinto's eyes and raised his brows. Fra Corinto was his jackal—here was his cue. He went swiftly to the door, set it open, came back and caught Vanna roughly by the shoulder. He turned her shocked face to the open door, and his dry voice grated ...
— Little Novels of Italy • Maurice Henry Hewlett

... could so work himself up to passion by a mere fictitious speech, to weep for one that he had never seen, for Hecuba, that had been dead so many hundred years, how dull was he, who having a real motive and cue for passion, a real king and a dear father murdered, was yet so little moved that his revenge all this while had seemed to have slept in dull and muddy forgetfulness! and while he meditated on actors and acting, and the powerful effects which a good play, represented to the life, has ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... Taking the cue from Jacques, who evidently did not intend holding a prolonged conversation, I said: "Adieu, monsieur, and a pleasant ending to your journey. You cannot mistake the way, now," and directly he had thanked us for our ...
— For The Admiral • W.J. Marx

... taking high ground in the commencement; and, as the man had his cue, and delivered his message with great distinctness and steadiness, the effect on the dependants of the household was very evident. Sir Reginald's face flushed, while Sir Gervaise bit his lip; Bluewater played with the hilt of his ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper

... accomplished such a journey. They ran down to Richmond and married on a Sunday, to save a talk and a show; they walked out of the opera where Handel might be performing, and observant gentlemen took the cue, followed on their heels, and had the knot tied by a priest, waiting in the house opposite the first chair-stand. Indeed, they contracted alliances so unceremoniously, that they went to Queen Caroline's or the Princesses' ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler

... for him, and told them what he had learned. "Now my cue is," said he, "to make Peakslow think I've gone home. So I may as well leave you for the present. Please take care of my saddle and bridle and gun till I call for them. Good by. If you should happen to come across ...
— The Young Surveyor; - or Jack on the Prairies • J. T. Trowbridge

... it,' answered Maulevrier, chalking his cue; 'can't say I admire her myself—not my style, don't you know. Too much of my lady Di—too little of poor Kitty. But still, of course, it always pleases a fellow to know that his people are admired; and I know ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... Yasmini's great window and received, one after another, liars by the dozen from the hills where lies are current coin. Some of them had listened to his lectures, and some had learned of them at second hand; every man of them had received his cue from Yasmini. There was too much unanimity among them; they wanted too little and agreed too readily to what the German had to say; he was growing almost suspicious toward half-past ten, when ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy

... decline in his estimation of Mr. Marston's importance did not deter him from going that night with three of his fellow-waiters to sing for that gentleman. Two of the quartet insisted upon singing fine music, in order to show their capabilities, but Silas had received his cue, and held out for the old songs. Silas Jackson's tenor voice rang out in the old plantation melodies with the force and feeling that old memories give. The concert was a great success, and when Marston pressed a generous-sized bank-note into his hand that night, he whispered, "Well, I'm glad there's ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... this is his cue for doing something, but cannot remember what. His arm accidentally hits the knife which is stuck in his belt; of course, this is the prisoner he is to kill; he takes out his knife, opens it with his teeth and attacks Pietro who, though unarmed, is ...
— Diversions in Sicily • H. Festing Jones

... his cue from his attorney, he scornfully added: "I came to find out some new evidence against the wretch who wrecked the beauty of my wife. All I've got is a tiresome lecture on X-rays and radium. I suppose what you say is true. Well, it only bears out what I thought before. Gregory ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... towards Ben Zoof, and the orderly, by a significant nod, made his master understand that he was to play the part that was implied by the title. He took the cue, and promptly ordered the Jew to hold his tongue at once. The man bowed his head in servile submission, and folded his hands upon ...
— Off on a Comet • Jules Verne

... man impracticable. But the danger of our times is to copy after others, and thus destroy our force and effectiveness. Live, then, like an individual. Take life like a man—as though the world had waited for your coming. Don't take your cue from the weak, the prejudiced, the trimmers, the cowards;—but rather from the illustrious ones of earth. Dare to take the side that seems wrong to others, if it seems right to you; and you will attain to an order of life the most ...
— The True Citizen, How To Become One • W. F. Markwick, D. D. and W. A. Smith, A. B.

... in his seat at this point, his cue in the mad farce having been given, and opened speech with many gestures, whereupon Carroll arose and embraced him warmly. And with this grouping, the vehicle, bearing its lunatic load, sped around the corner and disappeared, while the sole interested witness retired to obscurity, with her ...
— The Unspeakable Perk • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... on the Queen's return from the Duchess's, she desired her 'valet de chambre' to bring her billiard cue into her closet, and ordered me to open the box that contained it. I took out the cue, broken in two. It was of ivory, and formed of one single elephant's tooth; the butt was of gold and very tastefully ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... should give the health authorities a cue. Rules and Regulations should be enforced, but enforced with instruction as to the means of doing. The WHY is not so easily understood as the student of sanitary science seems to think. Germs and microbes are empty air to the street urchins ...
— Euthenics, the science of controllable environment • Ellen H. Richards

... interests have been taken away from the land and more and more walled up about my family. Dinky-Dunk's grain, however, has come along satisfactorily, and there is every promise of a good crop. Yet this entirely fails to elate my husband. Every small mischance is a sort of music-cue nowadays to start him singing about the monotony of prairie-life. Ranching, he protests, isn't the easy game it used to be, now that cattle can't be fattened on the open range and now that wheat itself is so much lower ...
— The Prairie Child • Arthur Stringer

... to let me have some of his cheap. Then you can have yours back, Adrian. That's the scheme! Come on, Moke, we'll go and take it down now. Thanks very much, old chap" (to me). "I'll tell Kitty that you've let us. We can jab it off its hook with a billiard-cue, I should think, Moke. Come too, will you, Mr Fordyce? You can stand underneath and catch it, in case it comes down with a ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay

... Resident's approach, the laughter and whispering ceased; and the four boys endured with impassive politeness the mysterious rite of introduction. The tinkling album gave Quita her cue. She insisted on hearing its entire repertoire, which was mercifully limited; and her natural ease of manner, her knack of plunging whole-heartedly into the subject of the moment, soon put Govind Singh's shyness to flight. He deserted monosyllables for clipped, hurried sentences, ...
— The Great Amulet • Maud Diver

... beating a professor who had objected to his conduct in the presence of ladies. Other ill reports added to his popularity. To be popular in this whimsical world of ours, one has either to be very good or very bad. Johann was not unwilling to speak. Stuler had given him the cue; the cuirassiers. His advice was secretly to arm and hold in readiness. As this was the substance of the other speeches, Johann ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath

... it to any human being before, that had custom permitted (the directors of his bank, perhaps), Peter would not only have indulged in the high coat-collar and quaint neck-cloths of his fathers, but would also have worn a dainty cue tied with a flowing black ribbon, always supposing, of course, that his hair had held out, and, what is more important, always supposing, that the wisp was long enough to ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith

... toss'd down their liquor, and made the walls echo with their uproar. The first and foremost in recklessness was a girlish-faced, fair-hair'd fellow of twenty-two or three years. They called him Mike. He seem'd to be look'd upon by the others as a sort of prompter, from whom they were to take cue. And if the brazen wickedness evinced by him in a hundred freaks and remarks to his companions, during their stay in that place, were any test of his capacity—there might hardly be one more fit to go forward as a guide on the road of destruction. From the conversation of the party, it appear'd ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman

... haughtily to his steamer-chair, but not to count raindrops. He had food for new and most irritating reflections. The girl's refusal to take his cue and ignore the very mild flirtation that had occurred on the car-platform placed him in a situation at once awkward and embarrassing. He rather prided himself on never taking advantage of any tribute of admiration that might ...
— The Honorable Percival • Alice Hegan Rice

... saying that he now recalled to some purpose: Vin de grain est plus doux que n'est pas vin de presse—"Willing duties are sweeter than those that are extorted." The punning allusion to the press had tickled his fancy and fixed the significant truism in his memory. From it he now took his cue and proceeded to man ...
— The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore • John R. Hutchinson

... found Campbell, who had had his cue from Tom, urging immediate removal as strongly as he could, without declaring the extent of the danger. Valencia was for sending instantly for a fly to the nearest town, and going to stay at a watering-place some forty miles off. Elsley ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume II. • Charles Kingsley

... himself with a strong stimulant, is waiting at the wing for his cue, in company with the 'call-boy' (an old man in this instance), who holds a copy of cues in one hand and a lighted candle in the other. The call-boy whispers 'Fuera!' as a signal for me to disappear from ...
— The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba • Walter Goodman

... laugh at, so the four took this little speech as a cue to laugh loud and long. It attracted Barbara's attention. She had been trying to read, but now she got up to frown at the gay young people she saw climbing the road to the house. Anne also heard the laughter and hurriedly ...
— Polly and Eleanor • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... philanthropy, magnanimity, and patriotism. There is a fine symmetry in the features of his face indicative of a benign and dignified spirit. His nose is straight, and his eyes inclined to blue. He wears his hair in a becoming cue, and from his forehead it is turned back, and powdered in a manner which adds to the military air of his appearance. He displays a native gravity, but devoid of all appearance of ostentation. His ...
— Boys' Book of Famous Soldiers • J. Walker McSpadden

... county," said she; "and Mrs. Venables is not the county pure and simple, she's half Northborough still, and she'll take her cue from the Invernesses and the Uniackes. But I do believe she's been round the whole country-side, getting people to say they won't call; as if it mattered to a man like Mr. Steel, or any woman he is likely to have chosen. Still, it is mysterious, isn't it? But what business of ours, ...
— The Shadow of the Rope • E. W. Hornung

... black, if used, counting double the arch made. If a ball is played through an arch, without first striking a cushion, the score goes to the adversary, but another ball, lying in front of the bridge, may be sent through by the cue-ball if the latter has struck a cushion. If a ball falls into a cup the striker scores the value of the cup as ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various

... the duties of her day, her mind returned to Cairy, to his work for Gossom, to his appealing self, and her lips relaxed in a gentle smile. Hers was a simple nature, the cue once caught. She had come of rather plain people, who knew the worth of a dollar, and had spent their lives saving or investing money. The energy of the proletariat had been handed to her undiminished. The blood was evident in the large bones, the solid figure, ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... steeping, taking out of the grain, &c., Mr J., junior, referred me to this said servant, this ploughman, who, he said, must remember it best, as having been the principal actor in the business. The lad then, having gotten his cue, circumstantially ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 458 - Volume 18, New Series, October 9, 1852 • Various

... Neuve-des-Petits Champs, a situation now occupied by the Theatre Ventadour in the place of the same name. On the days when the drawings took place, an observer might watch with curiosity the crowd of old women, cooks, and old men assembled about the door of this building; a sight as remarkable as the cue of people about the Treasury on the days when the dividends ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... I all actor then? That which I feigned I felt, and when it was my cue to kiss her, The whole of childhood rushed into the kiss. When it was in my part to cling about her, I clung about her mad with memories. The water in my eyes rose from my soul, And flooding from the heart ran down my cheek. Did my voice tremble? Then it trembled ...
— Nero • Stephen Phillips

... like to have you all go. And when I take his measure, it will be the signal to the rest of you to put out the lights. All that's going, come on." There were no dissenters to the programme. I saw at a glance that my bunkie was heart and soul in the play, and took my cue and kept my mouth shut. We circled round the town to a vacant lot within a block of the rear of the dance hall. Honeyman was left to hold the horses; then, taking off our belts and hanging them on the pommels of our saddles, we secreted our six-shooters inside the ...
— The Log of a Cowboy - A Narrative of the Old Trail Days • Andy Adams

... of the oddities of his temperament that at this moment he saw himself objectively. What a subdued neutral tinted thing was life! By all the canons of romance it was now his cue for perfervid speech. ...
— The Henchman • Mark Lee Luther

... and fall with a sickening blow across Jules's shoulders. She had planned a scene something like this while she worked away at the lantern that afternoon. Now she felt as if she were acting a part in some private theatrical performance. Jules's cry gave her the cue, and the ...
— The Gate of the Giant Scissors • Annie Fellows Johnston

... Coburg and the Surrey theatres, at the names of which he cries 'Faugh' with great significance, as if he had some personal disgust at them, and yet he would be supposed never to have entered them. It is not his cue as a well-bred critic. C'est beau ca. Now this appears to me a very crude, unmeaning, indiscriminate, wholesale, and vulgar way of thinking. It is prejudicing things in the lump, by names and places and classes, instead of judging of them by what they are in themselves, by their real ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... borrowed. Ho! ho! this puts a very unpleasant complexion on things. When dear old Car brought it to me I thought I might do what I liked with it. Did you not give me to understand as much Car?" Here he gave Carrie a perceptible wink. She was very much under his influence, and immmediately too her cue. ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade

... friend, the late Laurence Hutton, the writer. Mr. Hutton and Mr. Booth were sitting in the latter's dressing room at Booth's Theater. Booth was, as usual, smoking his beloved pipe. When he heard his cue, he arose, and walked with Hutton to the prompter's entrance, where, giving his pipe to his friend, said: "Larry, will you keep the pipe going until I come off?" Booth entered on the scene; then came the big moment in the play when the nobles and the ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... students in an effort to keep faith with their pioneer mycologist, have taken cue from the specific name, looking for something black, heedless that in Pennsylvania almost any delicate thing has 'dark looks' in the middle of the winter! Berlese in Saccardo Syll. VII., p. 350, regarding ...
— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

... Emperor was seated the King of Saxony, in a white uniform with red facings, and collar richly embroidered in silver, wearing a false cue ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... coach-house, so I was left to do the parade single-handed. I found myself very much of a hero whether I would or not. The girls were full of little shudderings over the dangers of our journey. And I thought it would be ungallant not to take my cue from the ladies. My mishap of yesterday, told in an off-hand way, produced a deep sensation. It was Othello over again, with no less than three Desdemonas and a sprinkling of sympathetic senators in the background. Never were the canoes more ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... and quite frankly, that her lawyer would do everything possible to get for her a share in the value of the statues discovered, and Volterra, following her clever cue, laughed with her, and said it should be a friendly suit, and that the lawyers should decide among themselves how it should be settled, without going into court. Volterra was probably the only man in Rome who entertained a profound respect for the Princess's intelligence; ...
— The Heart of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford

... a little. De Mezy and his satellites, Nemours and Le Moyne, sat down noisily at a table and ordered claret. De Mezy gave the cue. They talked of the Bostonnais, not only of the two Bostonnais who were present, but of the Bostonnais in all the English colonies, applying the word to them whether they came from Massachusetts or New York or ...
— The Hunters of the Hills • Joseph Altsheler

... considerate Boutigo gave us a minute's pause to rearrange ourselves and our belongings, that we slipped into easy and general talk. An old countryman, with an empty poultry-basket on his knees, and a battered top-hat on the back of his head, gave us the cue. ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch



Words linked to "Cue" :   remind, cue stick, stock, evidence, input, clue, stimulus, cue ball, speech, discriminative stimulus, stimulant, prompt, actor's line



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