turkey

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“
"And the turkey is the biggest of all," said Elijah, who was doing it full justice.

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Definitions (30)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. 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.
  2. noun A related bird (Agriocharis ocellata) of Mexico and Central America, brilliantly colored and having eyelike spots on its tail.
  3. noun Slang A person considered inept or undesirable.
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Examples (50)

  • This stone was sometimes referred to simply as the turkey, and Broderip ("Zoological Recreations") conjectured that the bird (turkey) took its name from the blue or turquoise colour of the skin about its head which I am to give her, as my Valentine, and I am not much troubled at it. —  Diary of Samuel Pepys, February 1667/68
  • The pheasant in its turn disappears inside a turkey, and the turkey is stuffed into a suckling pig. —  Sushiesque
  • For the past year, the turkey has been a casual - and increasingly popular - observer, tagging along with the early morning collection trucks 'loops through the tree-lined area of town.
  • Sylvia Barsky, who lives on Eugene Street, wondered if the turkey was the sole surviving offspring of a dozen chicks she heard had hatched in the neighborhood.
  • Everyone knows that the turkey is the most noble of birds. —  TG Daily - All News
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

chicken ·  mutton ·  fowl ·  venison ·  goose ·  pheasant ·  steak ·  rabbit ·  lamb ·  veal ·  pigeon ·  goat

Used in the same contextWord Family

turkey:   turkeys
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. After Turkey from a confusion with the guinea fowl, once believed to have originated in Turkish territory.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also turky, turkie; short for Turkey-cock or Turkey-hen, ‘cock’ or ‘hen of Turkey,’ Turkey here meaning ‘Tatary’ or vaguely ‘Asia,’ whence the bird was at first supposed to come; from French Turquie, Turkey, from Turc, Turk: see Turk. The bird was also supposed to come from India, being also called cock of India, French poule d'Inde, now dinde, ‘hen of India,’ Spanish gallina de India, ‘hen of India,’ Italian gallo or gallina d' India, ‘cock’ or ‘hen of India,’ G. Indianische henn or hun (Minsheu), ‘Indian hen,’ also Calecutischer hahn or henne (cf. Dutch kalkoen) ‘cock’ or ‘hen of Calicut.’ It was also referred to Africa, being called Guinea-hen (Ginnie henne, etc.), or hen of Guinea (henne of Guinie, etc.), and confused with the guinea-hen as now so known; Spanish gallina Morisca, ‘Moorish hen,’ etc. (So maize, or Indian corn, was supposed to come from ‘Turkey’ or Asia, and was called Turkey-wheat.) The Hindustani name is perū, perhaps referring to its American (‘Peruvian’) origin. The Arabic name in Egypt is dik rūmī, ‘fowl of Turkey.’
 

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/ˈtərki/
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