Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An armed and uniformed attendant attached to the suite of a person of distinction in Turkey.
- noun A Turkish police-officer. Also cavas, cawass, kawass.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The man in gold, armed to the teeth, is what is called a cavass, and these swells behind are the representatives, male or female, of some foreign potentate, taking a walk.
Sketches From My Life Pasha, Hobart 1887
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Two exciting days were spent exploring the city in a landau, protected by my son, a dragoman, the coachman, and a "cavass," a superbly uniformed native soldier lent me by our minister, Mr. Terrell, from the American legation.
Harrison, Mrs. Burton, 1843-1920. Recollections Grave and Gay 1911
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So I've justed wasted more than an hour playing around; redrawing myself in charcoal and ink, turning myself into stained glass, pouring myself onto cavass.
Redrawing Myself Sharon Bakar 2004
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So I've justed wasted more than an hour playing around; redrawing myself in charcoal and ink, turning myself into stained glass, pouring myself onto cavass.
Archive 2004-09-01 Sharon Bakar 2004
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But, I was getting pretty cold and had a big pair of leather gloves and some cavass gloves inside of them but, anyway, I got scared about that thing and I thought this ain't gonna do and I looked down
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The _cavass_ in charge of the servants was beginning to be fussy, in fear that while we were dawdling about the one train might come and go, and the _sitts_ and _effendis_ be left to the limited accommodations of Aïasulouk for the night.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878. Various
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At last we saw lights approaching, and another cavass (belonging to our excellent consul) appeared with lots of lanterns and men "with staves and swords," as becometh a Levantine consul, and, escorted by these, we walked a long way over the rough, slippery paving-stones before we reached the Armenian and Greek quarters.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878. Various
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British merchant then residing at Mosul, my cavass, and a servant.
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 19 — Travel and Adventure Various 1909
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Attended by the _cavass_ [4] of the Swedish Embassy, old Ali, I drove down to the quay on a fresh, sunny October morning, loaded all my boxes on board a _caique_, and was rowed by four men out to the Bosporus between anchored sailing vessels, steamers, and yachts.
From Pole to Pole A Book for Young People Sven Anders Hedin 1908
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They reckon their ancestry from the mother, and when my Cretan cavass, Hadji Houssein, spoke of his home, it was always as his “mother's house.”
The Autobiography of a Journalist Stillman, William James, 1828-1901 1901
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