| 释义 |
turkey2|ˈtɜːkɪ|
Also 6–7 turkie, 6–8 turky. Pl. turkeys, formerly turkies.
[Short for turkey-cock, -hen, app. applied orig. to the Guinea-fowl, a native of Africa, with which the American turkey was at first confounded: see turkey-cock.]
†1. The Guinea-fowl. Obs.
[1552–1601: see turkey-cock 2, turkey-hen 1.] 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 166 They were first brought from Numidia into Turky, and thence to Europe, whereupon they were called Turkies.
2. a. In current use: A well-known large gallinaceous bird of the Linnæan genus Meleagris, the species of which are all American; esp. M. gallopāvo, which was found domesticated in Mexico at the discovery of that country in 1518, and was soon after introduced into Europe, and is now valued as a table fowl in numerous countries.
Two races of this, which have been variously regarded as sub-species or species, are found wild, of which one, the Northern wild turkey, which has been variously distinguished as americana, sylvestris, and fera, is a native of the eastern half of the continent, from parts of Canada and the Missouri region to Texas, where it is succeeded by M. mexicana, the Mexican wild turkey. As in the case of many long-domesticated animals, it is doubtful from which of these wild types the domestic turkey has arisen, but the fact that the latter was domesticated in Mexico, and that the northern race shows less adaptability to domestication, favours the opinion that M. mexicana was the source. Some however hold that there may have been two domestic breeds, represented in England by the Norfolk and the Cambridgeshire breeds, or that at least mixture with americana has taken place. Another species, M. ocellata, which inhabits Guatemala, is smaller and much more beautiful; it has not been tamed.
(The first two quotations app. belong to this sense.)
1555in Dugdale Orig. Jurid. xlviii. (1666) 135 Turkies 2. rated at 4s. a piece..00. 08. 00. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 89 Runciuall pease..more tender and greater they wex, If peacock and turkey leaue iobbing their bex. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. i. 29 The Turkies in my Pannier are quite starued. 1616Capt. Smith Descr. New Eng. 29 Teale, Meawes, Guls, Turkies, Diue-doppers. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 32 The Turkey is a very large Bird, of a blacke colour, yet white in flesh. 1643Baker Chron. (1660) 317 About [1524], it happened that divers things were newly brought into England, whereupon this Rhyme was made: ‘Turkeys, Carps, Hoppes, Piccarell, and Beer, Came into England all in one year’. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 116 Others [Pigeons] walked on the Ground, with their Breasts bearing out, and the Feathers of their Tails spreading like Turkies. a1705Prior Ladle 74 Fat Turkeys gobbling at the Door. 1766Pennant Zool. (1768) I. 213 The Turky was unknown to the antient naturalists, and even to the old world before the discovery of America. 1805Southey Madoc ii. xi, The loud turkey's voice Is heralding the dawn. 1860Tylor Anahuac ix. (1861) 228 The turkey, which was introduced into Europe from Mexico, was called ‘huexolotl’ from the gobbling noise it makes. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. iv. 115 Civilities at Christmas, in the way of turkeys and boxes of raisins.
b. wild turkey, the wild original of the domestic fowl; commonly applied to the North American bird: see above and sense 3.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 762 They haue Eagles, Haukes, wilde Turkeys and other Fowle. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia ii. 27 Wild Turkies are as bigge as our tame. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 260, I knew a Gentleman that had a Hen-Turkey of the wild kind from Virginia; of which, and an English Cock, he raised a very fine Breed. 1830‘B. Moubray’ Domest. Poultry x. (ed. 6) 81 There is a sameness of colour in the wild turkey, and the original stock seems to have been black, domestication generally inducing a variety of colours. 1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 138 Two species only are known to naturalists, namely, the common wild turkey, (Meleagris gallopavo,) of North America, the origin of our domestic stock, and the Honduras turkey, (M. ocellata).
c. The flesh of this bird, esp. the domestic turkey, as food.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 70 Christmas husbandlie fare..shred pies of the best,..and turkey well drest. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg., St. Nicholas, The lay-brothers bring To the board a magnificent turkey and chine. The turkey and chine..are done to a nicety. 1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 122 Cold turkey and ham, or roast chicken. How I hate that turkey! It's so vulgar too; almost as vulgar as goose.
d. U.S. and Canada. Allusively, in colloquial or dialect phrases, etc.
to say turkey or talk turkey, to talk agreeably or affably, to say pleasant things; now usu. (in this sense also to talk cold turkey) to speak frankly and without reserve; to talk hard facts, get down to business; (no longer restricted to N. Amer.); to talk turkey, to use high-flown language; hence absol. language of this character; not to say (pea-) turkey, to say nothing at all, ‘not to say a word’ (about something); to walk turkey, to strut or swagger; of a ship, to pitch and roll. (See Bartlett Dict. Amer., and Thornton American Glossary.)
1824Little Bit of Tid-Re-I ii. 109 So that, all things considered, I hope neither the Indian, whom the Yankey could not cheat in the division of their game (a turkey and a buzzard,)..will accuse me of not talking Turkey to them in this article. 1846J. W. Abert in Congress Documents XXX. 502 The Indian replied, ‘You never once said turkey to me’. 1851Adv. Capt. Suggs 122 (Thornton) He won't get a chance to say turkey to a good lookin gall to-day. a1860McClintock Beedle's Marriage (Bartlett), I was plaguy apt to talk turkey always when I got sociable, if it was only out of politeness. 1888San Francisco Weekly Examiner 22 Mar. (Farmer Amer.), The north wind commenced to make the Yaquina walk turkey, standing her up on either end alternately. 1888Washington Critic (ibid.), ‘What..does locum tenens mean, Tim?’.. ‘Why, that's turkey for pro tem., of course’. 1903Dialect Notes II. 333 Talk turkey, v.phr., to talk plainly: ‘I'm going to talk turkey with him and see if I can't get him to mend his ways.’ 1909Ibid. (U.S.) III. 356 (Thornton) She never said pea-turkey to me about it. 1919E. Hough Sagebrusher xiv. 125 Do you know when he got rattled he began to talk Dutch to me? Well, I talked turkey to him. 1928Daily Express 4 Jan. 11/5 She talked cold turkey about sex. ‘Cold turkey’ means plain truth in America. 1939A. Huxley After Many a Summer ii. x. 279 ‘I'll make it worth your while,’ he said. ‘You can have anything you care to ask for.’.. ‘Ah,’ said Dr. Obispo, ‘now you're talking turkey.’ 1946E. Hodgins Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House (1947) xv. 196 The boss painter..wanted to talk turkey about..the final colours. 1967A. Christie Endless Night ix. 67 Send for a high powered lawyer and tell him you're willing to talk turkey. Then he fixes..the amount of alimony. 1982T. Berger Reinhart's Women xix. 270 Maybe I'll be in a position to talk turkey about an arrangement that would work out for us both.
e. cold turkey: a method of treating drug addicts by sudden and complete withdrawal of the drug, instead of by a gradual process. Also attrib. and as advb. phr.; also transf. Hence cold-turkey vb. trans., to cure of drug addiction by ‘cold turkey’ treatment. slang (orig. N. Amer.).
1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 13 Oct. 15/6 Perhaps the most pitiful figures who have appeared before Dr. Carleton Simon..are those who voluntarily surrender themselves. When they go before him, they [sc. drug addicts] are given what is called the ‘cold turkey’ treatment. 1936Amer. Speech XI. 120/1 Cold turkey, treatment of addicts in institutions where they are taken off drugs suddenly without the ‘tapering off’ which the addict always desires. 1941W. C. Handy Father of Blues xviii. 243 We went on ‘cold turkey’ that morning without a rehearsal. 1951N.Y. Times 27 June 19 She tried it ‘cold turkey’ once, which she explained meant merely stopping completely, without any attendant medication. 1960Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Sept. 589/4 The Scene is written by a junkie..who was snitched by a flip, busted by the nailers and after a stretch in the pen cold turkeyed..that is to say, was once a dope addict; he was arrested and..managed to break himself of his addiction. 1962‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed xi. 72, I made one cold⁓turkey cure and it near killed me. 1976S. George Fatal Shadows 154 She took a cold turkey, no methedrine, no sedatives, nothing, just off.
3. a. Applied with qualification to other birds: A local name of the Bustard; now usually applied to the Australian Bustard, also called native turkey, plain turkey, or wild turkey (Eupodotis (Otis) australis); in Australia also, the brush-turkey or wattled turkey and the scrub-turkey: see these words; in America, Colorado turkey or water-turkey, names for native species of Ibis; water-turkey, the Darter or Snake-bird (Plotus anhinga); in South Africa, the Bald Ibis (Gerontius calvus).
1847,1852Brush-turkey [see brush n.1 4]. 1848Native turkey [see native a. 13 c]. c1868G. Pryme in Autobiog. Recoll. xxvi. (1870) 386, I have seen Bustards,..which the natives called Wild Turkey,..flying over the Gogmagog Hills. 1872C. H. Eden Queensland iv. 122 The plain turkey or bustard (Otis Australasianus),..the male weighing from eighteen to twenty-five pounds. 1872Scrub-turkey [see scrub n.1 6 c]. a1889Ripley & Dana Amer. Cycl. V. 692 This bird [Plotus anhinga] is a constant resident in Florida, and the lower parts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia... In these localities it bears the various names of water crow, Grecian lady, water turkey, and cormorant.
b. plain turkey, scrub turkey: humorous names for swagmen who haunt, respectively, the Australian plains and the bush [perhaps with partial allusion to the ‘turkey’ (sense 5 below) which they carry]. Austral. slang.
1955A. Marshall I can jump Puddles 152 Father..was familiar with the ways of swagmen... The bearded men who kept to the bush he called ‘Scrub Turkeys’ and those who came down from the plains he called ‘Plain Turkeys’. 1973F. Huelin Keep Moving 178 Scrub Turkey, bagman who has gone Bush. Usually slightly mental or eccentric.
†4. Angling. Short for turkey-fly (see 7). Obs.
1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 301 The Turkey, or March-fly. Body, brown foal's hair [etc.].
5. transf. in lumbering: see quots. 1893, 1905; applied more generally to bundles or hold-alls carried by other itinerant workers, vagrants, etc. N.Amer. and Austral.
1893Scribner's Mag. June 715/2 With his ‘time’ in his pocket and his ‘turkey’, a two-bushel bag in which he carries his belongings, strung over his shoulder, the shanty boy starts..for town. 1905Logging Terms (U.S. Dept. Agric., Forestry, Bulletin lxi.), Turkey, a bag containing a lumberjack's outfit. To ‘histe the turkey’ is to take one's personal belongings and leave camp. 1909Outlook 2 Jan. 19/1 A [Colorado] desert miner calls his valise a ‘turkey’. 1912G. H. Gibson Ironbark Splinters 6 So you ‘pack’ your bloomin' turkey, and you take the northern train. 1931‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route 216 Turkey, a bundle, a suitcase or a canvas bag. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. v. 104 Expressions to describe being on the tramp...[to] coil one's turkey (strictly this applies to the rolling of a swag) [etc.]. 1963R. Symons Many Trails v. 54 The cowboys' ‘turkeys’—as they called their bedrolls, in which were wrapped their personal possessions such as tobacco—when the outfit was on the move. 1973in B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years ii. 19, I took to the road with..my poor clothes tied together with two leather thongs, and that is what they call a turkey.
6. U.S. slang.
a. An inferior or unsuccessful cinematographic or theatrical production, a flop; hence, anything disappointing or of little value.
1927Vanity Fair (N.Y.) XXIX. 132/3 ‘A turkey’ is a third rate production. 1939G. Marx Let. 27 Oct. (1967) 21 The boys at the studio have lined up another turkey for us... I saw the present one the other day and didn't care much for it. 1941J. M. Cain Mildred Pierce 176 The beach..was studded with rocks and was therefore unsuitable to swimming. For all ordinary purposes it was simply a turkey. 1962Movie June 18/1 With The Four Horsemen, Minnelli was once more landed with a turkey, an old one, too. 1977H. Fast Immigrants iii. 201 ‘Have you ever thought of selling the place?’ Jake asked... ‘Oh? And who the hell would buy this turkey?’
b. = Turk n.1 4 b; spec. an Irish immigrant in the U.S.
1932J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan i. 31 Dooley was one comical turkey, funnier than anything you'd find in real life. 1966[see salt water B. c].
c. A stupid, slow, inept, or otherwise worthless person.
1951in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 556/2 So, if you got a collector [of internal revenue] through the civil service system who was a real turkey, you'd be stuck with that turkey practically until he died. 1969C. Burke God is Beautiful, Man (1970) 105 You better get real strong like so that you won't be a turkey. 1978Time 3 July 13/3 ‘Come on, you turkeys! Let's speed this show up!’ cries an irreverent observer. 1984Tampa (Florida) Tribune 5 Apr. 4d/3, I decided I had had enough of that turkey.
7. attrib. and Comb., as turkey-butcher, turkey-chick (also fig.), turkey-coop, turkey dinner, turkey-drumstick (in quot. attrib.), turkey farm, turkey farmer, turkey-feather, turkey-gobbler, turkey-hunt, turkey-hunter, turkey meat, turkey-pie, turkey-poult, turkey-shooter, turkey-tail, turkey-wing; turkey-like adj.; turkey-apple, local name of Cratægus induta, a small tree of Arkansas, bearing small reddish berries (Cent. Dict. Suppl. 1909); turkey-back, a large variety of the yellowshank, Totanus melanoleucus; turkey-beard, also turkey's beard, a North American herb, Xerophyllum asphodeloides, N.O. Liliaceæ, having a tuft of wiry root-leaves, and an erect stem with a raceme of white flowers; turkey-berry, (a) Solanum mammosum and S. torvum of the West Indies; (b) the fruit of a W. Indian tree, Cordia Collococca (turkey-berry tree); see also Turkey1 3 c; turkey-bird, local name of the wryneck, and of the turnstone; turkey-blossom, W. Indian name of Tribulus cistoides; turkey-bush, an evergreen shrub, Myoporum deserti, native to Australia and bearing white flowers followed by purple berries; turkey-buzzard, an American carrion vulture, Cathartes aura, so called from its bare reddish head and neck and dark plumage; the John Crow of Jamaica; also fig.; in W. Africa, the Vulturine Pie, Picathartes gymnocephalus; turkey-call, (a) the gobbling sound characteristic of the turkey-cock; also (b) an instrument for imitating this, used to decoy the wild turkey; turkey-corn, Dicentra (Dielytra) canadensis of eastern N. America, having yellow tubers like grains of maize; also called squirrel-corn; see also Turkey1 3 c; turkey-dog, a dog trained to hunt the wild turkey; turkey-egg, the egg of the turkey; also (pl.) the common fritillary (local); turkey-fat ore, local name for a variety of smithsonite (carbonate of zinc) coloured yellow by greenockite (Cent. Dict. 1891); turkey-feather fucus, laver, peacock's-tail seaweed, Padina pavonia; turkey-flower = turkey-blossom; † turkey-fly, a kind of angler's fly: cf. sense 4; turkey-foot, (a) [from the shape of the spike], local name for North American grasses of the genus Andropogon; (b) applied to other things resembling a turkey's foot (in quot. 1957, a weaving pattern); turkey-gnat, a small black fly of the genus Simulium which infests poultry in southern and western N. America; turkey-grass, goose-grass or cleavers (Galium Aparine); turkey-louse, a feather-eating parasite, as Goniodes stylifer, infesting turkeys (Cent. Dict., and Suppl.); turkey-merchant (slang): see quots.; cf. Turkey1 3 a; turkey-oak, Quercus Catesbæi, of south-eastern N. America; also, the American ‘Spanish’ oak, Q. falcata; turkey-pea (wild-turkey pea) = turkey-corn; also applied to the hoary pea, Tephrosia virginiana; turkey-pen (U.S.), a pen for trapping wild turkeys; turkey-shoot, a shooting-match in which the mark is a live turkey, or its head only; † turkey-tomb, a turkey-pie (humorous); turkey-trot, a kind of ball-room dance introduced from U.S.; also, a fast jogging trot like that of a turkey; hence turkey-trotting a.; turkey vulture = turkey-buzzard; turkey-yelper, a decoy call: = turkey-call (b). See also turkey-cock, -hen.
1888G. Trumbull Names Birds 168 At Salem, Mass., the larger birds of the species [Totanus melanoleucus] have long been distinguished from the others under the name of *Turkey-back.
1884Miller Plant-n., *Turkey's-beard, Xerophyllum asphodeloides.
Ibid., *Turkey-berry, Solanum mammosum and S. torvum.
1819Pantologia s.v. Cordia,..C. collococca,..of Jamaica..the clammy-cherry, or *turky-berry tree. 1858Hogg Veg. Kingd. 538 Turkey and other poultry feed on the fruit of C[ordia] collococca, called Turkey-berry Tree and..Clammy Cherry.
1885Swainson Provinc. Names Birds 104 Wryneck (Jynx torquilla),..*Turkey bird. Because it erects and ruffles the feathers of its neck when disturbed. 1894Scott Willcox Egg Collector's Handy Dict., Turkey-bird,..Turnstone, Strepsilas interpres.
1849Craig, *Turkey-blossom, the name given in Jamaica to the plant Tribulus terrestris.
1911W. R. Guilfoyle Austral. Plants 265 ‘*Turkey⁓bush’..evergreen shrub..reputed poisonous and injurious to stock. 1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling xvii. 163 Shrubs..mingled with turkey-bush flower—white and small, having five petals to each bloom, like an English daisy. 1965Austral. Encycl. IX. 59/2 Turkey-bush, one of several names applied to the inland shrub Myoporum deserti because wild turkeys or native bustards have been observed to eat the berried fruits.
1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1858) 165 There are *turkey butchers of whom you may buy the half or a quarter of a bird.
1672J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 12 The *Turkie Buzzard, a kind of Kite, but as big as a Turkie, brown of colour, and very good meat. 1839Darwin Voy. Nat. iii. 68 The turkey-buzzard (Vultur aura)..is found wherever the country is moderately damp, from Cape Horn to North America. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 23 One of the chief features of Free Town are the jack crows... Picathartes gymnocephalus. To the white people who live in daily contact with them they are turkey-buzzards; to the natives, Yubu.
1873Forest & Stream 2 Oct. 123/1 A *turkey-call is easily imitated by using the hollow bone of the leg or wing of the same.
1555in Dugdale Orig. Jurid. xlviii. (1666) 135 *Turkey-Chicks 4. rated at iiijs a piece. 00. 16. 00. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 150 Putting Knavish tricks Upon Green-Geese, and Turkey-Chicks.
1833Marryat P. Simple xxvii, The geese and *turkey-coops are divided off into apartments for four sows.
1884Miller Plant-n., *Turkey-corn, Corydalis formosa.
1953G. W. Brace Spire xiii. 125 ‘*Turkey dinner, eh?’ ‘With gravy,’ Sylvia said. 1977‘W. Trevor’ in D. Marcus Best Irish Stories II. 78 The Bulrush Café has a turkey dinner advertised.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 231/1 This setter..was an excellent *turkey dog.
1860O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. ii, The *turkey-drumstick style of organization.
1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess of Mar 10 Mar., A fine coloured emerald, as big as a *turkey-egg.
1952Turkeys Nov. p. ix. (Advt.), Beale's *turkey farm.
1959Ibid. July–Aug. 29 (Advt.), One of Norfolk's leading *turkey farmers. 1972K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me iv. 40 A rich turkey-farmer in Suffolk.
1624Capt. Smith Virginia ii. 30 We haue seene some vse mantels made of *Turky feathers.
1767Ellis in Phil. Trans. LVII. 407 It is well known by the name of *Turky-feather Fucus,..Fucus Pavonius.
1866Treas. Bot., *Turkey-feather laver, the common name of Padina pavonia.
1843Penny Cycl. XXVII. 830/2 T[ribulus] cistoides..is abundant about Kingston in Jamaica, where it is called *turkey-flower... Fowls are said to be fond of this plant.
1676Cotton Angler ii. vii. 63 The first flie we take notice of..is call'd the *Turky-flie.
1932Simpson & Weir Weaver's Craft xii. 126 *Turkey Foot (24 threads).—Each pedal should be used six times in the following order: 4, 2, 3, 1; repeat. 1935M. Moore Sel. Poems 71 The firs stand in a procession, each with an emerald turkey-foot at the top.
1899D. Sharp in Cambr. Nat. Hist. VI. vii. 477 In North America the..*Turkey-gnats attack a variety of mammals and birds.
1836W. T. Porter in Spirit of Times 9 July 162/1 They seemed to me about the size of a big Christmas *turkey gobbler. 1879J. Burroughs Locusts & W. Honey 46 The turkey-gobbler and the rooster.
1874Edith Waddy Year Wild Fl. 62 Goosegrass, *Turkey-grass, Cleavers,..names..familiar to all..for the Bedstraw.
1827J. F. Cooper Prairie I. iii. 46 Dreaming of a *turkey hunt.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 231/1 Nearly every negro man and boy on the plantation came up to have a look at the famous *turkey hunter.
1855Poultry Chron. III. 67 Large *turkey-like bird, native of Mexico.
1901A. H. Rice Mrs. Wiggs of Cabbage Patch ii. 24 If you ain't never et *turkey meat you don't know how good it is. 1972Country Life 30 Nov. 1507/1 The promoters of turkey-meat sales.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Turky-Merchants, drivers of Turkies. 1785Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Turkey merchant, a poulterer.
1717Petiveriana iii. 206 *Turkey Oak. From a small Acorn it bears which the Wild Turkeys feed on.
1884Miller Plant-n., *Turkey-pea, Wild, Corydalis formosa.
16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. vi. 982, I inuited the hungry slaue..to the canuasing of a *Turkey Pye. 1694*Turkey-poots [see turkey-cock 3]. 1769Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 373 Ducklings, Turkey Poults, Plovers. a1809A. Seward Lett. (1811) I. 113 A Turkey-poot casting about with a pitiful poked-out neck, for its lost companion. 1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 165 To eat turkey poults is a wasteful piece of luxury.
1845S. Judd Margaret i. 62 Its succedanea..were a *turkey shoot the next day, and a ball. 1898H. Frederic Deserter 81 The farther of the two was now so far away that he seemed a mere dark speck, like the object seen from the gun-line of a turkey-shoot. 1980Outdoor Life (U.S.) (Northeast ed.) Oct. 92/2 Saturday afternoon turkey shoots used to be popular in my community.
1869T. W. Higginson Army Life 11 Some steady old *turkey-shooter hit the mark.
1851J. J. Hooper Widow Rugby's Husband 84 Betsy dodged behind the wild *turkey-tail which she carried by way of a fan. 1936M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xviii. 318 Girls who laughed from behind turkey-tail fans.
1622Fletcher Beggar's Bush iv. iv, Fat capons..And *turkey-tombs, such honourable monuments.
1839Southern Lit. Messenger V. 337/1 May-be I didn't set up a high *turkey⁓trot, and peeled it like thunder. 1895F. Remington Pony Tracks 187 He would run me off the plantation at a turkey trot if I did shoot. 1908W. G. Davenport Butte & Montana beneath X-Ray 42 The light fantastic, the turkey trot and the pazamala were indulged in by all to a late hour. 1912Nation 22 June 427/1 The Lord's prayer, followed by the ‘Turkey trot’. 1913G. Grossmith in Daily Graphic 12 May 9/1 Adventurous persons will see the Turkey trot or Tango as they are danced in a cabaret, but not as danced in a Paris ball-room.
1859H. E. Taliaferro Fisher's River Scenes & Characters 36 You're a purty set uv ill-begotten, *turkey⁓trottin' pukes, to raise a quarrel with a peaceubble man, and then run like a gang uv geese.
1823E. James Acct. Expedition Rocky Mts. I. 4 At evening we..saw..several *turkey vultures. 1846in Congress Documents XLI. 405 Amongst the birds [we have] the turkey vulture. 1908Daily Chron. 18 Aug. 5/4 They are about the size of large barn-door fowls, with red heads (hence their name ‘turkey vultures’).
1872Mrs. Stowe Sam Lawson's Oldtown Fireside Stories 4 ‘I'll sweep up the coals now,’ he added, vigorously applying a *turkey-wing to the purpose. 1888Century Mag. XXXVI. 769/2 Turkey-wing fans and fans of peacock feathers.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 231/2 Matt drew from his pocket a ‘*turkey-yelper’ and began to call.
▸ Turkey Day n. (also with lower case initials) U.S. colloq. Thanksgiving Day, in the United States.
1870N.Y. Evangelist 1 Dec. 7/1 Thursday was *turkey day. 1953Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 26 Nov. 31/9 (advt.) A very happy ‘Turkey Day’ to all you good friends and nabors. 2004M. St. Amant Committed (2005) xxxi. 246 In the past, I've been known to hurl wedges of pumpkin pie at the TV screen if things aren't going my way..on Turkey Day. |