Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A large North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) that has brownish plumage and a bare wattled head and neck and is widely domesticated for food.
- noun The flesh of this bird, used as food.
- noun A related bird (Meleagris ocelatta syn. Agriocharis ocellata) of Mexico and Central America, brilliantly colored and having eyelike spots on its tail.
- noun A person considered inept or undesirable.
- noun A failure, especially a failed theatrical production or movie.
- noun Sports Three consecutive strikes in bowling.
- idiom (talk turkey) To speak frankly about the basic facts of a matter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A bag containing a lumber-jack's outfit.
- noun An American gallinaceous bird of the genus Meleagris; any species of Meleagridæ. See the technical names.
- noun The second species of Meleagris is M. ocellata, the ocellated turkey of Honduras and some other parts of Central America. This is much smaller and more beautiful than the other; the plumage is intensely lustrous, and in part eyed with iridescent ocelli, recalling those of the peacock; the bare head is deep-blue, studded with caruncles of an orange color, and no dewlap is developed.
- noun With qualifying term, one of several different Australian birds which resemble or suggest the turkey. See phrases below.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- proper noun A country in the southeast of Europe and southwest of Asia.
- proper noun 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.
- proper noun (Bot.) See
Cerris . - proper noun Cloth dyed with this red.
- proper noun (Zoöl.) See Toilet sponge, under
Sponge . - proper noun a kind of oilstone from Turkey; novaculite; -- called also
Turkey oilstone . - noun (Zoöl.) 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. - noun (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 . - noun (Bot.) a West Indian name for the fruit of certain kinds of nightshade (
Solanum mammosum , andSolanum torvum ). - noun (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] the wryneck. So called because it erects and ruffles the feathers of its neck when disturbed.
- noun (Zoöl.) 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 alsoturkey vulture . - noun (Zoöl.) a male turkey.
- noun (Zoöl.) a female turkey.
- noun (Zoöl.), [R.] a young turkey.
- noun (Zoöl.) the turkey buzzard.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Either of two species of
bird in the genusMeleagris with fan-shapedtails andwattled necks . - noun colloquial A
failure . - noun slang A
foolish orinept person. - noun bowling An act of throwing three
strikes in a row.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an event that fails badly or is totally ineffectual
- noun large gallinaceous bird with fan-shaped tail; widely domesticated for food
- noun a Eurasian republic in Asia Minor and the Balkans; on the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Young Turks, led by Kemal Ataturk, established a republic in 1923
- noun flesh of large domesticated fowl usually roasted
- noun a person who does something thoughtless or annoying
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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- TURKEY HUNT PREVIEW When Thomas Washburn, 14, of Woodbury, heads into the turkey woods in about a week, he'll try to accomplish something on his first hunt that his grandfather, Reinhard Riessen, a veteran of many hunts near Mankato, has never done: bag a gobbler.
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But what Schider's memories of Thanksgivings in New York suggest is that "Turkey Day" for vegans and vegetarians is about everything but the turkey.
Addison County Independent - Covering the 23 towns of Addison County, Vermont 2009
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3 Responses to "How to Make Turkey Edible" just deep fry the turkey.
BC Bloggers 2009
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An before someone also points out he has offspringincluding the dead one he keeps using for the sympathy vote from mad women in Essex, the term turkey baster springs forth...
Archive 2008-09-01 FIDO The Dog 2008
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Thus, when Europeans encountered the bird in the New World, the word turkey was a lot easier to remember and to pronounce than the Aztec word, huexoloti.
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Keep in mind the arrow kill zone on a turkey is about the size of your fist.
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Keep in mind the arrow kill zone on a turkey is about the size of your fist.
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The design was what we call a turkey tail, and the thing was polished to a shine.
Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011
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But most often in modern day Mexico, a turkey is the main attraction, no matter what regional dishes accompany it.
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But most often in modern day Mexico, a turkey is the main attraction, no matter what regional dishes accompany it.
Jubjub commented on the word turkey
You turkey!
November 26, 2009
tonytam commented on the word turkey
Yummmmmmmmmmyyyyyy
November 27, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word turkey
bubblyjock, polliecock.
May 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word turkey
"Until 1520, those who knew anything about the New World still thought it a part of Asia, so the pioneer ornithologist Pierre Belon gave both the duck and the turkey Asian origins. He reproduced drawings of the 'Muscovy' duck and described the turkey as from India, or 'd'Inde,' from which came dinde, the French word for turkey."
--Joyce Appleby, Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013), p. 111
December 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word turkey
"In about 1525 the turkey was introduced (to Europe), rapidly displacing the stringy 'great birds' of the medieval table. Fabulously expensive, turkeys were sold at London markets for 6 shillings a piece*, but they were well enough to be established by the 1540s for the courtier Sir William Petre to cage them with pheasants in his orchart at Ingatestone Hall."
"*Turkeys were so called because they arrived from Mexico via trade in the Levant. By the 1570s their price had dropped to 3s 4d for a cock and 1s 8d for a hen."
--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 93
January 8, 2017