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/tˈərki/ Listen

proper noun

Turkey n. A country in the southeast of Europe and southwest of Asia.

Turkey carpet, a superior kind of carpet made in Asia Minor and adjoining countries, having a deep pile and composed of pure wool with a weft of different material. It is distinguishable by its coloring and patterns from similar carpets made in India and elsewhere.

Turkey oak. (Bot.) See Cerris.

Turkey red.

(a)

A brilliant red imparted by madder to cottons, calicoes, etc., the fiber of which has been prepared previously with oil or other fatty matter.

(b)

Cloth dyed with this red.

Turkey sponge. (Zool.) See Toilet sponge, under Sponge.

Turkey stone, a kind of oilstone from Turkey; novaculite; called also Turkey oilstone.

noun

Turkey n. (pl. turkeys) (Zool.) Any large American gallinaceous bird belonging to the genus Meleagris, especially the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), and the domestic turkey, which was probably derived from the Mexican wild turkey, but had been domesticated by the Indians long before the discovery of America. Note: The Mexican wild turkey is now considered a variety of the northern species (var. Mexicana). Its tail feathers and coverts are tipped with white instead of brownish chestnut, and its flesh is white. The Central American, or ocellated, turkey (Meleagris ocellata) is more elegantly colored than the common species. See under Ocellated. The Australian, or native, turkey is a bustard (Choriotis australis). See under Native.

Turkey beard (Bot.), a name of certain American perennial liliaceous herbs of the genus Xerophyllum. They have a dense tuft of hard, narrowly linear radical leaves, and a long raceme of small whitish flowers. Also called turkey's beard.

Turkey berry (Bot.), a West Indian name for the fruit of certain kinds of nightshade (Solanum mammosum, and Solanum torvum).

Turkey bird (Zool.), the wryneck. So called because it erects and ruffles the feathers of its neck when disturbed. (Prov. Eng.)

Turkey buzzard (Zool.), a black or nearly black buzzard (Cathartes aura), abundant in the Southern United States. It is so called because its naked and warty head and neck resemble those of a turkey. It is noted for its high and graceful flight. Called also turkey vulture.

Turkey cock (Zool.), a male turkey.

Turkey hen (Zool.), a female turkey.

Turkey pout (Zool.), a young turkey. (R.)

Turkey vulture (Zool.), the turkey buzzard.

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Etymology of 'Turkey'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Turkey" Quotes from Famous Books

... a general so affable and pleasant, for he had seen some lieutenants and captains strut like turkey-cocks, because they wore straps on their shoulders. Paul saluted the General, and said, "I am ordered to report ...

— Winning His Way • Charles Carleton Coffin

... the people were simple and primitive. The costume of the men was a raccoon-skin cap, linsey hunting-shirt, buck-skin leggings and moccasons, with a butcher-knife in the belt. The women wore cotton or woollen frocks, striped with blue dye and Turkey-red, and spun, woven, and made with their own hands; they went barefooted and bareheaded, except on Sundays, when they covered the head with a cotton handkerchief. It is told of a certain John Grammar, for many years a representative ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... o'ercoming ought; Poor patriots perish, persecution's pest! Quite quiet Quakers "Quarter, quarter," quest; Reason returns, religion, right, redounds, Suwarow stop such sanguinary sounds! Truce to thee, Turkey, terror to thy train! Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine! Vanish vile vengeance, vanish victory vain! Why wish we warfare? wherefore welcome won Xerxes, Nantippus, Navier, Xenophon? Yield, ye young Yaghier yeomen, yield your yell! Zimmerman's, Zoroaster's, Zeno's zeal ...

— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various

... Government entertain, your Excellency is instructed to seek an audience of the Sultan, and to explain to His Highness, in the most forcible terms, the feelings of the British Government, and the consequences, so injurious to Turkey, which a disregard for those feelings will involve. Her Majesty's Government are so anxious for the continuance of a good understanding with Turkey, and that the Porte should entitle itself to their good offices in the hour of need, that they wish to leave ...

— Correspondence Relating to Executions in Turkey for Apostacy from Islamism • Various

... autumn of 1875, the very date of my tour, a paragraph appeared in a Pest newspaper stating that a young girl of great beauty in the neighbourhood of Temesvar, in the Banat of Hungary, had been secretly carried off into Turkey without the knowledge or consent of her parents. It was further stated that these scandalous proceedings were of very frequent occurrence in the border provinces. For some years past the supply of beautiful Circassians has been deficient, it is said, so doubtless the harems of Constantinople ...

— Round About the Carpathians • Andrew F. Crosse

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