walking turkey

Verb

walk turkey (third-person singular simple present walks turkey, present participle walking turkey, simple past and past participle walked turkey)

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
2. To walk with the chest pushed out in front (often due to being pushed or forced)
   • 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
3. (broadly) To obey obsequiously; to toe the line.
   • 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