Meaning of Queer Street | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A stunned condition.
   idiomatic
2. A difficult circumstance, especially bankruptcy; hard times.
   UK, dated, idiomatic
3. Suspicious circumstances.
   UK, dated, idiomatic

Examples

“In any event, the German slugger nailed down 21 of his 39 victories by putting his opponent on Queer Street via the knockout route.”

“Frazier had him on Queer Street in the 11th round. ... He was glad he got off Queer Street.”

“But soon they led a Queer-street life, / 'Twas what she'd not expected / Like cat and dog, with snarl and strife, / And love and lamps neglected. / About his work he would not wag”

“He is one of those men who have overshot their true generation. He should have been a buck in the days of the Regency—a boxer, an athlete, a plunger on the Turf, a lover of fair ladies, and, by all account, so far down Queer Street that he may never find his way back again.”

“The only reason Ms Beverley-Stevenson and her two companies are in business is to make a profit, otherwise she and her partners would be on Queer Street.”

“I found the wadding of the pistol with which the deceased Mr. Tulkinghorn was shot. It was a bit of the printed description of your house at Chesney Wold. Not much in that, you'll say, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet. No. But when my foreign friend here is so thoroughly off her guard as to think it a safe time to tear up the rest of that leaf, and when Mrs. Bucket puts the pieces together and finds the wadding wanting, it begins to look like Queer Street.”

CEFR level