The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bashi-bazouk \Bash"i-ba*zouk"\ (b[a^]sh"[i^]*b[.a]*z[=oo]k"), n. A soldier belonging to the irregular troops of the Turkish army.
Wiktionary
n. An irregular soldier of the Ottoman army.
Wikipedia
A bashi-bazouk or bashibazouk ( Turkish başıbozuk, literally "damaged head", also named delibaş, literally "crazy head", both meaning "free headed", "leaderless", "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army. A Bashi-Bazouk may be Turk but also Circassian, Arab, Albanian. They were particularly noted for their lack of discipline.
A bashi-bazouk was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army. The term may also refer to one of the following.
- "Bashi-bazouk" is a common slur uttered by Captain Haddock in comic book series The Adventures of Tintin
- "Bashi-Bazouk" is the name of a song by Peter Gabriel. It's found on the CD single for Digging in the Dirt.
Usage examples of "bashi-bazouk".
Far beyond anything the French can put down immediately: for, do you see, this sudden incursion must be very well-manned, with former Turkish auxiliaries, bashi-bazouks, tribal warriors, bandits and the like, all members of the Muslim fraternities or provided by them - a very formidable body indeed if it is to succeed in its aim if it is to wreck the Allied plans and to give Napoleon the chance of engaging the weakest of the opposing armies and destroying it, as he has done before.
They wore gaudy scarves, sweaty silks, Army bandoliers, and more resembled Turkish bashi-bazouks than any kind of Briton.
They then described to him the taking of a Christian city by Turkish troops, particularly by the irregulars, the utterly undisciplined bashi-bazouks employed by Ismail: murder of course, with women raped and men and children sodomized, but also monstrous desecration of churches, graves and everything holy.