chiaus

noun

1. (historical)An Ottoman Empire court official; an attendant, messenger, herald, interpreter.
2. (historical)An Ottoman Empire çavuş (“sergeant”).
3. (alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete spelling of chouse (“a swindler”).

   “Dap. And will I tell then! By this hand of flesh, Would it might never write good courthand more, If discover. What do you think of me, That I am a chiaus? Face. What’s that? Dap. The Turk was, here― As one would say, do you think I am a Turk? Face. I’ll tell the doctor so. Dap. Do, good sweet captain.”

4. (alt-of, historical)Alternative letter-case form of chiaus.

   “The greater part of the Chiaus's do the Duty of Serjeants”

verb

1. (alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete spelling of chouse (“cheat, trick, swindle”).

   “The word chouse appears to have been introduced into the language at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In 1609, a Chiaus sent by Sir Robert Shirley, from Constantinople to London, had chiaused (or choused) the Turkish and Persian merchants out of ₤4,000, before the arrival of his employer, and had decamped. The affair was quite recent in 1610, when Jonson's "Alchemist" appeared, in which it is thus alluded to:[…]”