Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A gratuity, tip, or bribe paid to expedite service, especially in some Near Eastern countries.
Wiktionary
- n. business, ethics In the Middle East, southwest Asia and Eastern Europe, a bribe or tip paid to speed up services.
- v. To bribe with a baksheesh.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as backsheesh.
- n. A relatively small amount of money given for services rendered (as by a waiter). Same as backsheesh.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a relatively small amount of money given for services rendered (as by a waiter)
Etymologies
- Turkish bahşiş, from Persian بخشیش (bakhšīš, "present; an honorary or pecuniary gratuity; drink-money") or بخشش (bakhšiš), from بخشیدن (bakhšīdan, "to give, grant, bestow"). (Wiktionary)
- Persian bakhshish, present, from Middle Persian bakhshishn, from bakhshīdan, bakhsh-, to give presents, from Avestan bakhsh-; see bhag- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Many Pakistanis consider the word baksheesh an insult.”
““How much did my guards squeeze out of you in baksheesh to let you in?””
“Afghans derisively call the routine bribes paid to expedite services "baksheesh" - the Persian word for tipping.”
“Still, while the baksheesh is a fact of life in many places, it doesn't work everywhere.”
The Huffington Post: Patrick McGinnis: Learning to Negotiate and Pay Baksheesh in Egypt
“All the western 'baksheesh' and some fancy vote rigging helped the US-backed March 14 coalition, headed by Saad Hariri, win 71 seats.”
“The money was just 'baksheesh', a bribe to buy the goodwill of surrounding Arab countries, not to mention the trouble-making capability of the PLO and its affiliates.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“Proving that the Conservative government has no concept of what 'baksheesh' is, we had Foreign Affairs Minister Bernier encouraging the government of Afghanistan to get rid of the governor of Kandahar province due to corruption: Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier directly told Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai that the governor of Kandahar province should be replaced because he is holding up Canadian development aid, CTV News has learned.”
“As unsavory as the concept is to Westerners, 'baksheesh' is a reality of life in Afghanistan as well as the rest of the middle east and much of southeast Asia.”
“Beginning with Camp David in 1978, the US bribed Egypt with billions in "baksheesh" in return for peace with Israel leaving Palestinians out in the cold.”
“Every one, apparently, on the train had the same experience -- the Austrian drummers looked wise and muttered "baksheesh," and in Bucarest an evil-eyed hotel porter kept pulling me into corners, saying that this taking of passports was a regular "commerce," and that for five francs he would have it back again.”
Antwerp to Gallipoli A Year of the War on Many Fronts—and Behind Them
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘baksheesh’.
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
cadre, bribery, bashing, backhander, clash, crony, coercion, coterie, chicanery, baksheesh, acolyte, backlash and 256 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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The sun never sets
viceroy, pondicherry, nabob, pukka sahib, ayah, bridge, crore, parsee, scandal point, madras, sepoy, kerala and 21 more...
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the economist
words seen in the economist, or likely to appear there.
suzerain, balkanization, filibuster, apparatchik, boondoggle, mole-groomer, vero possimus, shorting, enclave, endogenous, exogenous, moral hazard and 35 more...
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work these into conversation
Challenge!
legerdemain, polysemic, rupestrian, callipygian, oscitancy, numen, lucubration, asperity, amalgam, apposite, wastrel, eleemosynary and 208 more...
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The Innocents Abroad
Words rounded up while reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.
rakish, excursionist, bowelless, pilgrimizing, melodeon, woebegone, abaft, sextant, veriest, behindhand, stanchion, avast and 188 more...
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Henderson the Rain King
Words taken from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.
yellowback, unkillable, swack, hoarfrost, decapotable, brownian, mackinaw, taxwise, oratorio, picaresque, masonite, catalpa and 109 more...
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...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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Specific
philtrum, subitize, agelast, abderian, tyro, zenocratically, logorrhea, aceldama, micawber, foyer, hircine, losel and 95 more...
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Show Me the Moolah
Slang terms (mostly American) for money.
dough, lettuce, moolah, rhino, spondulicks, buck, sawbuck, greenback, pony, c-note, grand, thou and 58 more...
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gift smift
donation, lagniappe, endow, knack, bequest, giveaway, bestow, hogmanay, munificent, largesse, bonsella, beneficence and 54 more...
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Shifty Words
Shifty, evasive, tricky words
tergiversate, pusillanimous, chimera, prestidigitation, chicanery, obfuscation, baksheesh, dastard, legerdemain, escamoterie, glaik, sophistry and 2 more...
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