drag-queenese

noun

The jargon used by drag queens.

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Meanings

noundrag-queenese (uncountable)
  1. rareuncountableThe jargon used by drag queens.

    Pleasant wedding chitchat. I turned to tell Shona that “hunty” was drag-queenese for friend or comrade, but she'd already scurried off.

    2021, Traci Andrighetti, Valpolicella Violet (Franki Amato Mystery; 7), Limoncello Press, →ISBN, page unknown
    2 more examples

    With quick shifts in and out of dialect, Rameau is able to speak French in an African-American accent, switch into East Village English, and then suddenly drawl some of the best drag-queenese heard this side of Union […]

    1994, Theater Week, volume 8, page 38

    When such events befell him, Dooni would simply disappear for a few days, returning to tell his friends he had been “on location, filming a movie,” Los Angeles drag-queenese for doing jail time.

    2006, Joshua Gamson, The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco, New York, NY: Picador, →ISBN, page 31

Origin

From drag queen + -ese.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

drag-queenese. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drag-queenese

MLA

“drag-queenese.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drag-queenese. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “drag-queenese,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drag-queenese.

Source: drag-queenese on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.