Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the East, a merchant; a rich gentleman; a European gentleman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A traveler.
  • noun A merchant; -- so called in the East because merchants were formerly the chief travelers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A traveller.
  • noun A merchant in the East (so called because merchants were formerly the chief travellers).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Arabic

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Examples

  • He makes the fires, waits on the crew, and is at everybody's beck and call, from the howadji to the sailor.

    Harper's Young People, January 20, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly Various

  • It was a happy thought; visions of Venice; the moonlit lagoon; the reflected lamps plunging their tongues of flame into the sea; the humid air, the almost breathless silence, broken at intervals by the baying of deep-mouthed bells; the splash of oars; the soft tripping measure of human voices and the refrain of the gondoliers; Jack by his side -- Jack now in her element, with the maroon fez of the distinguished howadji tilted upon the back of her handsome head, her shapely finger-nails stained with henna, her wrists weighed down with their scores of tinkling bangles!

    The Spinner's Book of Fiction Various

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