bashi-bazouks

Noun

bashi-bazouk (plural bashi-bazouks)

1. (historical) An irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, reputed to be brutal and undisciplined.
   • The plundering habits of the Bashi-Bazouks have been blamed in bitter language by well-paid correspondents of our press, who forget that the Bashi-Bazouk wanted clothes, food, money—was a starving zealot to a cause which could not support him.1855 December, “Who are the Kings of the East?”, in William Tait, Christian Isobel Johnstone, editors, Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXII, Edinburgh: Sutherland & Knox; London: Partridge & Co....
2. (dated, figuratively) One who does work outside regular employment; an irregular.
   • Hard-working boys are these juvenile Bashi-Bazouks of the newspaper trade. And I am glad to observe, for the edification of social economists, with scarcely an exception, very honest boys.1859, George Augustus Sala, “Five o’Clock a.m.—The Publication of the ‘Times’ Newspaper”, in Twice Round the Clock; or The Hours of the Day and Night in London. […], London: Houlston and Wright, […]...