duke

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
duke/djuːk/

▶noun

• 1 a male holding the highest hereditary title in the British and certain other peerages.

• 2 chiefly historical (in parts of Europe) a male ruler of a small independent state.

• 3 (dukes) informal the fists.

– phrases
duke it out N. Amer. informal fight it out.

– derivatives
dukedom noun.

– origin OE, from OFr. duc, from L. dux, duc- ‘leader’, rel. to ducere ‘to lead’; sense 3 is from rhyming sl. Duke of Yorks ‘forks’ (= fingers).