Mameluke

[ mam-uh-look ]

noun
  1. a member of a military class, originally composed of slaves, that seized control of the Egyptian sultanate in 1250, ruled until 1517, and remained powerful until massacred or dispersed by Mehemet Ali in 1811.

  2. mameluke. Archaic. (in Muslim countries) a slave.

Origin of Mameluke

1
First recorded in 1505–15; from Arabic mamlūk literally, “slave,” noun use of past participle of malaka “to possess”

Words Nearby Mameluke

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Mameluke in a sentence

  • As we travelled, my Mameluke taught me to shoot with the bow, and made me buy finger-stalls and rings for this purpose.

  • Fortunately my Mameluke bribed the Greek, and, in consideration of two ducats that I gave him, he opened the passage.

  • It was Mohammed Ali who settled the Mameluke problem in the conclusive way which sultans adopt at times.

    The Ship Dwellers | Albert Bigelow Paine
  • Now, the sultan's favourites were not unaware of the unfriendly feeling with which they were regarded by the Mameluke chiefs.

    The Boy Crusaders | John G. Edgar
  • She was fashionably dressed in a green spencer, with ‘Mameluke’ sleeves, and wore a velvet Spanish hat and feather.

    The Trumpet-Major | Thomas Hardy

British Dictionary definitions for Mameluke

Mameluke

Mamaluke Mamluk (ˈmæmluːk)

/ (ˈmæməˌluːk) /


noun
  1. a member of a military class, originally of Turkish slaves, ruling in Egypt from about 1250 to 1517 and remaining powerful until crushed in 1811

  2. (in Muslim countries) a slave

Origin of Mameluke

1
C16: via French, ultimately from Arabic mamlūk slave, from malaka to possess

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012