Chouse

to cheat out of one’s share or portion. Hackluyt , CHAUS ; Mas singer , CHIAUS . From the Turkish , in which language it signifies an interpreter. Gifford gives a curious story as to its origin:— “In the year 1609 there was attached to the Turkish emba y in England an Interpreter, or CHIAOUS , who, by cunning, aided by his official position, managed to cheat the Turkish and Persian merchants, then in London, out of the large sum of £4000, then deemed an enormous amount. From the notoriety which attended the fraud, and the magnitude of the swindle, any one who cheated or defrauded was said to chiao us , or chause , or CHOUSE ; to do, that is, as this Chiaous had done.”— See Trench, Eng. Past and Present. Chiaus , according to Sandys ( Travels , p. 48), is “one who goes on emba ies, executes commandments,” . The particular Chiaus in question is alluded to in Ben Jonson’s Alchymist , 1610. “ D. What do you think of me? That I am a CHIAUS ? Face. That I am a CHIAUS? What’s that? D. The Turk [who] was here. As one would say, do you think I am a Turk?”