See Also: Turk(dictionary)
Turk(dictionary)
Turk's cap(dictionary)
Turk(medicine)
Turk, Wilhelm(medicine)
Turk cell(medicine)
Turk, Siegmund(medicine)
Turk's leukocyte(medicine)
Turk's head(dictionary)
Grand Turk(tourism)

Turk (iou)



Turk noun1. LME.
[French Turc, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Turco, medieval Latin turcus, Byzantine Greek Tourkos, Persian from Turkish turk a Turk (cf. Arab. al-turk (the) Turks), prob. ult. a Turkish name.]
Orig. (now Hist.), a Seljuk or Ottoman Turk (see sense 2 below); more widely, any subject of the Ottoman Sultan. Now, a native or inhabitant of modern Turkey; a person of Turkish descent. LME.
Hist. A member of an ancient and widely spread central Asian people, speaking Turkic languages, to which the Seljuks and Ottomans belonged. E16.
A Muslim. M16-M18.
A cruel, tyrannical person; a ferocious, wild, or unmanageable person. derog. & racially offensive. M16.
A human figure at which to practise shooting. M16-M17.
A horse of Arabian origin, = ARAB noun 2. Now rare. E17.
A Turkish cigarette. E20.
[Perh. rel. to Irish torc boar, hog.] A person of Irish birth or descent. slang (derog.). Chiefly US. E20.
Phrases: little Turk = Young Turk (c) below. the Grand Turk, the Great Turk Hist. the Ottoman Sultan. the Turk (a) Turks collectively, the Turkish power; (b) Hist. the Ottoman Sultan. Turk's turban: see TURBAN noun 5. turn Turk become a Muslim. Young Turk (a) Hist. a member of a revolutionary party in Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th cent.; (b) transf. a young person eager for radical change to the established order; (c) (with lower-case initials) (derog. & racially offensive) a violent child or youth.
Turkdom noun the realm or domain of the Turks; Turkey: E20.
Turkery noun (a) the Turkish religious system; Islam; (b) Turks collectively: L16.