Dictionary

walk turkey en · VERB

Etymology

From the way a domestic turkey moves, leading with the breast and bobbing back and forth.

Meanings

1. To stagger or move with an ungainly gait.
   • Out on the bar the north wind commenced to make the Yaquina walk turkey, standing her up on either end alternately and rolling her both ways at once. 1888, San Francisco Weekly Examiner:
   • The last time my rubber boots got hooked up in the staysail sheets, and as the sail was full of wind I walked "Turkey" for a little while with both feet in the air. 1995 -, Inland Seas - Volume 51, Issue 4, page 29:
2. To walk with the chest pushed out in front (often due to being pushed or forced)
   • Amos Hathaway was found by his wife in the poolroom of Charlie Dismer Saturday night and was made to walk turkey right out of there. 1935, Pathfinder:
   • As a people we have an insane and deep-rooted preference for noise over harmony, for force over reason, or we should not be taken by the slack of the pants and walked turkey up to the counter, 1932, The World's Work, page 54:
   • Why, swimming “dog fashion” can bear no comparison with it, while the almost frantic efforts of the young man to keep his toes on term firma, seemed to us a most vivid illustration of the days when the “big boys” used to make us “walk turkey". 1868, Beloit College Monthly - Volume 15, page 140:
   • But when they came to be drummed out of camp they had to walk turkey or get a bayonet run into them. 1972, Detroit in Perspective - Volumes 1-2, page 39:
3. (broadly) To obey obsequiously; to toe the line.
   • The legislatures rap them for lower fares, the federal government makes them walk turkey, and they see a man with a gun behind every bunch of grass, whichever way they turn. 1915, E. C. Cook, Railway Journal - Volume 21, page 6:
   • "Jest let him get the grip on you that he got on me, an he'll make the best among ye walk turkey,” Bud retorted sharply. 1889, Harry Castlemon, True to His Colors, page 192:
   • Secretary Brower intends to lay down the law and make delinquents walk turkey. 1907, Typographical Journal - Volume 31, page 62:
   • There are a favored few who are allowed to do as they please ; but the rest of us must walk turkey, or spend our Saturday afternoons in doing extra duty. 1883, Harry Castlemon, The Rod and Gun Club, page 34:

Forms