turk

1. A person from Turkey or of Turkish ethnic descent. [from 12th c.]

2. (obsolete) A Muslim. [16th–18th c.]Examples: "Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me—with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players?"; "Compare but our manners unto a Turke [translating Mahometan], or a Pagan, and we must needs yeeld unto them[…]."; "It is no good reason for a man's religion that he was born and brought up in it; for then a Turk would have as much reason to be a Turk as a Christian to be a Christian."obsolete

3. (archaic) A bloodthirsty and savage person; vandal; barbarian.Examples: "Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe."; "A sort of primitive barbarity distinguishes the whole; no variety of character appears; and to call a man Turk is to say, that he is jealous, haughty, covetous, ignorant, and lascivious; at the same time that a certain dignity of gait, and magnificence of manners, gives him the appearance of generosity and true greatness of soul."; "A bad temper does seem often favourable to health. The man who has been a Turk all his life lives long to plague all about him."archaic