National Idioms - 3

Today we are going to look at expressions containing the word' turkey' (more as a reference to the homonym of turkey as a bird and not to the country.) Then we will go on to look at some compound nouns with the adjective 'Turkish'.

The first expression is 'cold turkey.' This is slang and it describes the period of extreme suffering when a person suddenly stops taking a substance to which they have become addicted, such as drugs. You can also say to 'go cold turkey' to emphasise the fact that somebody has given something up without any help such as nicotine patches or substitute drugs.

Another expression is 'to talk turkey'. This is an Ametican saying and it means to talk honestly and frankly about something. If somebody says to you "Let's talk turkey", they either want you to be honest with them, or they are warning you that they are going to be quite direct.

Now for some compound nouns. Have you ever had a Turkish bath? They are supposed to be very relaxing. Sit back and chill out in steam and let someone massage away all your troubles. After having a Turkish bath, you may feel like indulging your sweet tooth, so how about some Turkish delight? This is a typical sweet from Turkey and was so named by an unknown British man who brought some of these sweets back to the UK after a trip to Turkey.