queen

queen the female ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position by right of birth; the wife of a king. The word is recorded from Old English (in form cwēn) and is of Germanic origin.
Queen and country the objects of allegiance for a patriot whose head of State is a queen. The term is first recorded in Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer (1706), ‘I endeavour by the example of this worthy gentleman to serve my Queen and country at home’, from the reign of Queen Anne (1665–1714).
Queen Anne is dead a phrase implying stale news; it is first recorded in the mid 19th century, in Barham's Ingoldsby Legends (1840), series 1, ‘Lord Brougham, it appears, isn't dead, though Queen Anne is’; an earlier variant appears in Swift's Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738), ‘Why, Madam, Queen Elizabeth's dead’.
queen bee the single reproductive female in a hive or colony of honeybees; in extended usage, the chief or dominant woman in an organization or social group.
queen consort the wife of a reigning king.
queen dowager the widow of a king.
queen mother the widow of a king and mother of the sovereign.
Queen of glory epithet of the Virgin Mary.
Queen of Hearts the nickname of Elizabeth of Bohemia (1598–1662), daughter of James I of England, who with her husband Frederick (the ‘Winter King’) had briefly occupied the throne of Bohemia before being driven into exile.

The Queen of Hearts is a well-known nursery-rhyme character dating from the late 18th century; in the 19th century she becomes one of the leading playing-card characters in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865); her favourite exclamation is ‘Off with his (or her) head!’
Queen of Heaven epithet of the Virgin Mary.
queen of love in classical antiquity an epithet of Aphrodite or Venus.
queen of tides the moon; the phrase is first recorded in Byron's Childe Harold (1812).
queen regnant a queen ruling in her own right.

See also May Queen, Red Queen at red, Snow Queen at snow, Winter Queen at winter.