bashi-bazouk

[ bash-ee-buh-zook ]

/ ˌbæʃ i bəˈzuk /

noun

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

Words nearby bashi-bazouk

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

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

Examples 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