turkey

See also: Turkey

English

WOTD – 26 November 2020

Alternative forms

Etymology

Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) (sense 2).
A roasted turkey (sense 3) at a restaurant in Singapore. The dish is traditionally served to celebrate Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.
Slices of turkey (sense 3).
A brush turkey or bush turkey (Alectura lathami; sense 4).
These turkeys of a domestic breed enjoy their feed.

Clipping of turkey-cock and turkey-hen, originally denoting the guinea fowl, an African bird that was first imported to Europe through Turkey, but there is some controversy over the origin.[1] The word was then transferred to the superficially similar North American bird Meleagris gallopavo.[2]

Pronunciation

Noun

turkey (plural turkeys or (obsolete) turkies)

  1. (countable, originally, now obsolete) The guinea fowl (family Numididae). [from c. 1600]
  3. (countable) A bird in the genus Meleagris with a fan-shaped tail and wattled neck.
    2. A wild turkey of Meleagris gallopavo.
    4. A domesticated bird of Meleagris gallopavo domesticus.
  5. (uncountable) The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.
    All week after Thanksgiving, I had turkey sandwiches for lunch.
  6. (countable) With a distinguishing word: a bird resembling the Meleagris gallopavo (for example, the brush turkey or bush turkey (Alectura lathami), and the water turkey (Anhinga anhinga)).
  7. (countable, bowling) An act of throwing three strikes in a row.
  8. (countable, medicine, slang, derogatory) A patient feigning symptoms; a person faking illness or injury; a malingerer.
    • [1976, Stephen Charles Frankel, Emergency Medical Care in an Urban Area (Ph.D. dissertation in Anthropology), Berkeley, Calif.: University of California, Berkeley, →OCLC, page 118:
      Mumford (1970) noted that the terms ‘crock’, ‘gomer’, and ‘turkey’, were sometimes utilized by interns to designate different types of undesirable patients, and sometimes used synonymously.]
  9. (countable, Australia, US, slang, dated) A pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase. [from early 20th c.]
  10. (countable, US, slang) A failure.
    Synonym: flop
    That film was a turkey.
    • 1981 August 8, Rob Schmieder, “Starring Bowie and Berlin”, in Gay Community News, page 11:
      And despite the gross incompetence of Hemmings' direction, the ludicrous script, and the heavy-handed acting, there remains a stellar reason to see and enjoy Just a Gigolo: David Bowie. David Bowie is a great actor, and not even this turkey can obscure that fact.
    • 2021 April 7, Christian Wolmar, “Electrification is a given... but comfort matters as well”, in RAIL, number 928, page 46:
      There were a few turkeys. In the rush to present a futuristic vision, the railways' heritage was largely forgotten and we ended up with new stations at Euston and at Coventry, its brash sidekick which I particularly loathe, although (of course) it won design awards.
  11. (countable, US, slang, usually mildly derogatory) A foolish or inept person.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idiot
    The turkey cut in front of me and then berated me for running into him.
  12. (African-American Vernacular, Baltimore, slang, derogatory) A prostitute.
    Synonyms: ho, hoe
    Shorty think she slick, but everybody know she a turkey.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

  • gobble (“to make the sound of a turkey”)

References

  1. ^ Escobar, Natalie (26 November 2025), “How 'turkey' made its way to Thanksgiving tables and our lexicon”, in Word of the Week‎[1], NPR, retrieved 26 November 2025
  2. ^ “turkey, n.2”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1915; “turkey1, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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