1
: a sovereign male ruler of a continental European duchy
2
: a nobleman of the highest hereditary rank
especially
: a member of the highest grade of the British peerage
Examples of duke in a Sentence
Noun
Put up your dukes and fight, you coward!
Recent Examples on the Web
Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 May 2026
Duchy is basically a fancy word for the territory of a duke—and as William is the current Duke of Cornwall, the 130,000-plus acres are his to steward.
—Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 25 May 2026
Oliver Renick, CNBC, 26 May 2026
Everything leads us to believe that Veska and Iliya will duke it out or that Said will ride in to save the day, like a latter-day Shane.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 22 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for duke
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Noun
But while Maras and his collaborators clearly know how to frame these events using impressive visual techniques, that sophistication struggles to connect emotionally as the acting and writing duke it out for the title of Bigger Disappointment.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 May 2026
Duchy is basically a fancy word for the territory of a duke—and as William is the current Duke of Cornwall, the 130,000-plus acres are his to steward.
—Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 25 May 2026
Verb
Traders on both sides of the question are duking it out in the options pit of one ETF that's trying to buck the multi-month downtrend in the commodity.
—Oliver Renick, CNBC, 26 May 2026
Everything leads us to believe that Veska and Iliya will duke it out or that Said will ride in to save the day, like a latter-day Shane.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 22 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for duke
Cite this Entry
“Duke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/duke. Accessed 31 May. 2026.
Copy CitationBiographical Definition
Duke
biographical name
ˈdük 
ˈdyük
Benjamin Newton 1855–1929 and his brother James Buchanan 1856–1925 American tobacco industrialists
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