bashi-bazouk

[ bash-ee-buh-zook ]

/ ˌbæʃ i bəˈzuk /

noun

(formerly) one of a class of irregular mounted troops in the Turkish military service.

Origin of bashi-bazouk

First recorded in 1850–55, bashi-bazouk is from the Turkish word başι-bozuk civilian, irregular, orig., leaderless, not attached (to a regular military unit), literally, (one) whose head (is) broken

Words nearby bashi-bazouk

bash, bash up, bashan, bashaw, bashful, bashi-bazouk, bashibazouk, bashing, bashkir, bashkir autonomous republic, bashkir republic

Example sentences from the Web for bashi-bazouk

But may I ask what all this means, and why you were hiding behind my curtains as though you were a burglar or a Bashi-Bazouk?

Molly Bawn |Margaret Wolfe Hamilton
Even a bashi-bazouk must have quailed before that amazing declaration and that patient resignation to fate.

The Skipper and the Skipped |Holman Day
As I looked six spearmen started out and spurred full speed at our Bashi-Bazouk, who was some two hundred yards behind us.

Tent Work in Palestine |Claude Reignier Conder
I get twenty doldars for a real odalisk and fifteen for a bashi-bazouk.

Felix O'Day |F. Hopkinson Smith

There is something about him as exotic as a samovar, as essentially un-American as a bashi-bazouk, a nose-ring or a fugue.

A Book of Prefaces |H. L. Mencken

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bashi-bazouk

noun

Origin of bashi-bazouk

Words nearby bashi-bazouk

Example sentences from the Web for bashi-bazouk