turkey

noun12

1. •
   a large bird with a wide tail that opens like a fan and loose red skin hanging from its neck
2. •
   The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.

   • All week after Thanksgiving, I had turkey sandwiches for lunch.
3. •
   A domesticated bird of Meleagris gallopavo domesticus.

   • It was a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of sealing-wax. — 1843
4. •
   (slang) A failure.

   • That film was a turkey.
5. •
   (slang, disapproving) A foolish or inept person.

   • The turkey cut in front of me and then berated me for running into him.
6. •
   A wild turkey of Meleagris gallopavo.
7. •
   An act of throwing three strikes in a row.
8. •
   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)).
9. •
   (slang, offensive) A patient feigning symptoms; a person faking illness or injury; a malingerer.

   • 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. — 1976
10. •
    (slang, offensive) A prostitute.

    • Shorty think she slick, but everybody know she a turkey.
11. •
    (slang, old-fashioned) A pack carried by a lumberman; a bindle; also, a large travel bag, a suitcase.
12. •
    (no longer used) The guinea fowl (family Numididae).

noun4

1. •
   A country located in Eastern Thrace in Southeastern Europe and Anatolia in West Asia. Official name: Republic of Türkiye. Capital: Ankara.

   • This isn’t the first time she has hidden a weight-loss management attempt from her husband. “I went to Turkey and had a gastric balloon, and I didn’t tell anyone, not even him,” she says. — 2025
2. •
   (historical) Synonym of Ottoman Empire, a former empire in Europe, Asia, Africa. Capital: Istanbul.
3. •
   Synonym of Turkey red (“a vibrant red dye or its color”).
4. •
   (no longer used) Synonym of Turkey blue (“a deep indigo dye or its color”).

adjective2

1. •
   Synonym of Turkey red (“dyed or colored Turkey red”).
2. •
   (no longer used) Synonym of Turkey blue (“dyed or colored Turkey blue”).