noun
- a bit of dialogue, action, or music that is a signal for an actor's entrance or speech, or for the working of curtains, lights, sound effects, etc.
- Music a gesture or written device used to signal the entry of one or more instrumentalists or vocalists
- anything serving as a signal to do something
- an indirect suggestion; hint
- Now Rare
- the role that one is assigned to play
- a necessary course of action
- Archaic frame of mind; mood; temperament
- Psychol. a secondary stimulus that guides behavior, often without entering consciousness
Origin:
< q, Q, used in plays in 16th & 17th c. to indicate actors' entrances; prob. abbrev. of some L word (as quando, when, qualis, in what manner)
transitive verb cued, cuing or cueing
to give a cue to