v. Obs. Forms: 6 torcasse, torkes, -esse, turkiss, -ise, 6–7 turkess(e, 7 turkeise, turquese, turkis(s, turkize, turcase, turches. [Derivation uncertain: evidently related to TURKEY, and, like that verb, referred by some to F. torquer, ad. L. torquēre to twist; but there are difficulties both of form and sense, and possibly both turken and turkesse were Eng. formations from TURK and TURKEYS, Turkish; at least, they were often associated with these words, this verb being actually in 17th c. spelt turkize; cf. also TURKISH v. in same sense. (There is no trace of any OF. verb torquir, torquiss-ant.)]
1. trans. To transform or alter for the worse; to wrest, twist, distort, pervert.
1521. Fisher, Serm. agst. Luther, Wks. (E.E.T.S.), I. 341. Many of [these heretics] … had the propre fayth [ed. 1556 feate] to wrye and to torcasse the scryptures.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 245. The body of Christ is a more pretious thing then hee will suffer to be turkessed and transformed after that sort.
1612. Sir R. Naunton in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 118. My mediation … was, I know not how, turquesed into a reprobate sense with Sir H. Nevill.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 1 (1619), 336. Some sentence of Scripture … must be turkist, and mishapen out of his natiue simplicitie.
1648. Petit. Eastern Assoc., 5. Those … which are so audacious as to turcase the revealed, and sealed Standard of our salvation … to the mishapen models of their intoxicated phansies.
2. To alter the form or appearance of; to change, modify, refashion (not necessarily for the worse).
1530. Palsgr., 759/1. I torkes, I alter the shappe of a thyng, je contourne, and je transmue. He hath torkessed his house quyte a newe.
c. 1577. G. Harvey, Marginalia (1913), 141. Erasmus three cheefist Paper bookes … His Similes … Apothegges … Prouerbs, newly turkissed by diuers.
1593. Abp. Bancroft, Surv. Discipl., i. 6. He taketh the said sentence out of Esay (somewhat turkised) for his poesie aswell as the rest.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1636), 21. Hee trimmeth himselfe often: he … changeth and Turkizeth his cloathes.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, I. iii. (1614), 298. The Turkes, when they turkeised it [St. Sophia], threw downe the Altars, turned the Bells into great Ordinance [etc.].
1639. Horn & Rob., Gate Laug. Unl., xlvii. § 505. He that makes cast-cloathes new of old (trimmeth up, new turkizeth), and exposeth them to sale, is a broker.
a. 1650. P. Fletcher, Father’s Test. (1670), 108. So curiously painted … and turchest in new fashions.
Hence † Turkessing, -ising, vbl. sb. Obs.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 5. (1619), 84. Adding, detracting, or depraving his institutions by a restless turkising of them.
1673. Jackson’s Wks., III. Creed, X. xxxi. Notes 133. An Alteration, Change, or Turning. Or if these be thought Terms too good, Let it be called a Turkizing of Sensitives.
