Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see sense 4g above.

the penis.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 16: ‘Like old turkey necks,’ is how they [i.e. penises] looked to this bulldagger fitted with boobs bigger than her head.

a masturbator.

2000

M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 60: She couldn’t understand why other girls her age were so freaked out by these underground turkey spankers.

to urinate.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 93/1: since ca. 1925.

(US) to get drunk.

1841

N.O. Picayune 20 Apr. 2/3: A chap [...] caught the largest kind of a ‘turkey’ while visiting the different bar-rooms [DA].

to masturbate.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 9: come your turkey (v.): To masturbate the male member.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

to be in a state of drunkenness.

a.1856		Burlington Sentinel in Hall (1856) 461: We give a list of a few of the various words and phrases which have been in use, at one time or another, to signify some stage of inebriation: [...] got a turkey on his back.
1892		‘Little Old Caboose Behind the Train’ in N. Cohen Long Steel Rail (1981) 383: They get out upon the track with their turkeys on their backs.
1928		‘The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (II)’ in N. Cohen Long Steel Rail (1981) 382: They will get up on that track with a (turkey) on their back.

(US) to say nothing, to stay silent.

1845		in Blair Amer. Humour 319: ‘Bet two to one old splinter-legs thar,’ nodding at one of the ministers — ‘won’t git a chance to say turkey to a good-lookin gal today!’ [DA].
1909		DN III 356: She never said pea-turkey to me about it [DA].

(US black) one who is infatuated and thus easily led and controlled.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 126: Expressions like [...] to have a ring through your nose, or to be a turkey on a string mean to be deeply infatuated or in love with another.

(US) to run off, to act in a cowardly manner.

1956

E. Hunter ‘The Last Spin’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 153: Tigo would not turkey out of this particular rumble.

a rich person.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

1. (US black) a white man, usu. derog.

1980

J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 60: There was this sorry little cracker that we used to call Turk [...] He didn’t know that when we were talking about him, ‘turk’ was short for turkey buzzard. We used to laugh about that a lot.

2. see buzzard n. (6)

(US black) Thanksgiving.

1916		E. Riedel ‘New Orleans Word-List’ in DN IV:iv 270: Turkey Day. Thanksgiving Day.
1938		P. Grey ‘’Twixt Night ’n’ Dawn’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 3 Dec. 11/4: In November [...] proprietors reported a fairly satisfactory Turkey Day.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 90: If I was booted, truly booted, I’d lay a solid beg on my righteous scribe, and knock a scoff on the zoom on Turkey Day.
1974		D. Jenkins Dead Solid Perfect 185: It was learned that Groover will arrive in Corbett four hours before the kickoff on Turkey Day.

(Aus. prison) fellatio; thus turkey gobbler, a fellator/fellatrix.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Turkey gobble. Fellatio. Thus a turkey gobbler is one who fellates.

1. one who buys and sells turkeys, a poulterer [allegedly credited to Horne Tooke (1736–1812), when questioned by fellow Etonians as to his father’s occupation].

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Turky-Merchants drivers of Turkies.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 32: Conner is a turkey merchant, and drinks his mahagony tea every morning.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 112: Poulterers are sometimes termed turkey merchants in remembrance of Horne Tooke’s answer to the boys at Eton, who wished in an aristocratic way to know what his father was ? a turkey merchant, replied Tooke; ? his father was a poulterer.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 165: Some of the slang expressions, also, are simply funny; as, for example, when you call [...] a poulterer ‘a turkey merchant’.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 18: One fellow of ours said his father was a Turkey merchant. He had no end of tin, and we really thought he was the ‘correct card;’ but he was always finding fault with the poultry and game at mess [...] Well, at last it oozed out he was the son of a poulterer in Leadenhall Market.

2. (UK Und.) a dealer in smuggled silk [the play was on merchant, i.e. a legitimate dealer].

1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 166/1: Turkey Merchants – purchasers of plundered silk.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 93: turkey-merchants Purchasers of stolen silk.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 9: There was Downy, a Turkey merchant in a small way, who had such a feeling for tusheroons that he was always changing his tanners and stags, and aldermen, into them.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 9: Turkey merchants - Purchasers of plundered silk.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

3. a street-seller of rhubarb.

1850

Birmingham Jrnl 1 June 8/2: An antient ‘Turkey merchant,’ one of those turbaned fellows you see going about with little lumps of rhubarb, and who offer to revolutionise your whole intestinal economy therewith for sixpence.

see bee’s knees n.

1. (US) a combat in which one’s own side wins without any difficulty, killing and destroying on a large scale; also in fig. use.

1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 200: Fuller suspected that Gotham was setting her up for a turkey shoot and held his head in his hands, waiting for the slow explosion.
1972		T. O’Brien If I Die in a Combat Zone (1980) 91: The artillery officer got busy [...] preparing the big guns for a turkey shoot.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 105: It turned into a turkey shoot. They were defenceless.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 33: She commit a turkey shoot. Which is to say she hit them with textbooks they never even heard of an turns their big ideas of the law into pork scratchins.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] If their first fight was Pearl Harbor, then this was Midway. The outcome was in doubt for much of the battle, but the matter was ultimately settled in a matter of minutes. Now it was a turkey shoot.

2. anything exceptionally easy.

1992

R. Price Clockers 398: It’s [i.e. a police surveillance] like a turkey shoot, a sniper’s dream.

(US) a term of abuse.

1983		N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone (1985) 35: Listen, turkey turd.
1987		in Delacoste & Alexander Sex Work (1988) 80: Keep your hands off her, turkey tail!

(US) very quickly.

1916

Day Book (Chicago) 23 Nov. 17/1: The little cuss whirled before you could say ‘Turkey!’ and lammed loose at me with my own gun.

to walk in a drunken, unsteady manner.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 342/1: –1869.

1. to suffer humiliation and insult without reciprocating.

1965–70

in DARE.

2. to take second best, to accept an inferior role.

1966–70

in DARE.

(Aus./N.Z.) head-over-heels.

1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 234: One as dumped down two flights, ’ead over tuck.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘The Singing Soldiers’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 64: Tho’ their ’ope o’ life grew murky, wiv the ship ’ead over turkey, / Dread o’ death an’ fear o’ drownin’ wus jist trifles they ignored.
1999–2001		P. Jerrim axel-and-alice 🌐 He jumped aside and fell through a native cherry tree, head-over-turkey into a sag of sword grass.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

(Aus./N.Z.) to leave in a hurry, to run off.

1933		(con. WWI) A.E. Strong in Partridge Sl. Today and Yesterday 287: I was so stiff I nearly turkeyed off from the line.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 74: Thompson threw the knife down with a bang and turkeyed off after her.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 241/1: turkey off – move on, go away.
1988		(ref. to WWI) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 115/2: turkey off absent without leave; WWI.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 218: turkey off A sudden departure, ANZ 1930s.