DUKE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does duke mean? 

• DUKE (noun)
  The noun DUKE has 2 senses:

1. a British peer of the highest rank

2. a nobleman (in various countries) of high rank

  Familiarity information: DUKE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DUKE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A British peer of the highest rank

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("duke" is a kind of...):

peer (a nobleman (duke or marquis or earl or viscount or baron) who is a member of the British peerage)

Instance hyponyms:

Duke of Lancaster; John of Gaunt (the fourth son of Edward III who was the effective ruler of England during the close of his father's reign and during the minority of Richard II; his son was Henry Bolingbroke (1340-1399))

Derivation:

ducal (of or belonging to or suitable for a duke)

dukedom (the domain controlled by a duke or duchess)

dukedom (the dignity or rank or position of a duke)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A nobleman (in various countries) of high rank

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("duke" is a kind of...):

Lord; noble; nobleman (a titled peer of the realm)

Derivation:

ducal (of or belonging to or suitable for a duke)

dukedom (the domain controlled by a duke or duchess)

dukedom (the dignity or rank or position of a duke)

 Context examples 

But as to counts, marquises, dukes, earls, and the like, I was not so scrupulous.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And before her stood princes, and dukes, and earls: and the fisherman went up to her and said, Wife, are you emperor?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“There's Charley Pyegrave, the duke's son,” she said.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been to Eton and Oxford.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sir Henry thought the duke not equal to Frederick, but that was because Sir Henry wanted the part himself; whereas it was certainly in the best hands of the two.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The duke was also known as Radical Duke because of his support of Americans during the Revolutionary War.

(Parchment Copy of Declaration of Independence Found in Small British Town, VOA)

Our Agatha was inimitable, and the duke was thought very great by many.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Once upon a time the king held a great feast, and asked thither all her suitors; and they all sat in a row, ranged according to their rank—kings, and princes, and dukes, and earls, and counts, and barons, and knights.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I should not have dwelt so long upon this particular, if it had not been a point wherein the reputation of a great lady is so nearly concerned, to say nothing of my own; though I then had the honour to be a nardac, which the treasurer himself is not; for all the world knows, that he is only a glumglum, a title inferior by one degree, as that of a marquis is to a duke in England; yet I allow he preceded me in right of his post.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Lord Ravenshaw and the duke had appropriated the only two characters worth playing before I reached Ecclesford; and though Lord Ravenshaw offered to resign his to me, it was impossible to take it, you know.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)