1638. Historie of Albino and Bellama, 108.
| That he forthwith unsheath’d his trusty TURKE, | |
| Cald forth that blood which in his veines did lurk. |
2. (old).—A savage fellow; ‘a cruel hard-hearted man’ (B. E. and GROSE); a TARTAR (q.v.). Also TO TURN TURK = to turn renegade, to change for the worse, to GO OFF (q.v.). TO TURKISE = to play the Turk; TURKISH TREATMENT = barbarous usage, ‘very sharp or ill dealing in business’ (B. E.); TURKISH SHORE = ‘Lambeth, Southwark, and Rotherhithe sides of the Thames’ (GROSE); TURK-A-TENPENCE = a term of contempt: cf. ‘tenpenny infidel’ (a term applied to the Turk in DEKKER’S Westward Ho! 1607) and TURK, sense 1, with an eye on TENPENNY SWORD = a poor tool. In modern usage TURK has lost somewhat of its rigorous meaning, and is frequently employed as a half-jesting endearment to a mischievous, destructive boy: e.g., ‘You young TURK!’
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iii. 2. 287. If the rest of my fortunes TURN TURK with me. Ibid. (1600), Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 4. 57. An you be not TURNED TURK.
1602. DEKKER, Satiromastix [NARES]. Wilt fight, TURK-A-TEN-PENCE? wilt fight then?
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes.
| He call’d thee Giaur, but thou so well didst answer | |
| (Being hot and fierie, like to crabbed Cancer) | |
| That if he had a TURKE OF TEN PENCE bin, | |
| Thou toldst him plaine the errors he was in. |
3. (old).—A target: a dummy made up of cloth and rags.
