queer ken

English

Alternative forms

• quier ken, quire ken, quyer ken

Etymology

From queer (“weird; odd”) + ken (“house”).

Noun

queer ken (plural queer kens)

1. (dated, UK, thieves' cant and Polari) A prison.
   • 2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Fact is, / she’ll end up in the charpering carsey / of Jennifer Justice. What is this / queer ken she’s in?

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:queer ken.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:prison

Derived terms

• queer-ken hall (“prison”)

References

• [Francis Grose] (1788) “Queer ken”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC.
• John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1902) “queer ken”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume V, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, page 345.
• Baker, Paul (2004) Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 49