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turkey

Pronunciation: /ˈtɜːki/

The English word “turkey” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The guinea fowl (family Numididae).
  2. A wild turkey of Meleagris gallopavo.
  3. A domesticated bird of Meleagris gallopavo domesticus.
  4. The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.
  5. 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)).
  6. An act of throwing three strikes in a row.
  7. A patient feigning symptoms; a person faking illness or injury; a malingerer.
  8. A pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase.
  9. A failure.
  10. A foolish or inept person.
  11. A prostitute.

Etymology

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. The word was then transferred to the superficially similar North American bird Meleagris gallopavo.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.