turn

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 4
Words With Friends: 6
Letters: 4

Pronunciation

/tɜːn/

See all 3 pronunciations

/tɜːn/ · /tɔːn/ · /tɜɹn/

Definition of turn

57 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

(intransitive, person)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“the Earth turns”
“turn on the spot”
“"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.[…]."”
“We didn't start the fire / It was always burning / Since the world's been turning”

See all 57 definitions

verb

(intransitive, person)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“the Earth turns”
“turn on the spot”
“"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.[…]."”
“We didn't start the fire / It was always burning / Since the world's been turning”
(transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“Turn the knob clockwise.”
“It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.”
“Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.”
(intransitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“She turned right at the corner.”
“I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railroad station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.”
“I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.”
(transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“She turned the table legs with care and precision.”
(broadly)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“[…]the Poets pen turnes them to ſhapes,[…]”
“[…]he was perfectly well turned for the occupations of trade and commerce.”
“His limbs how turn’d! how broad his ſhoulders ſpread!”
(transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“Add sugar and butter, then turn the mixture into a dish.”
“The farmer turned the cows into a field.”
“You were not wont to turn young and beautiful suppliants from your office door. What is the real reason of this professional reluctance on your part?”
(transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“turn the bed covers; turn the pages”
(figuratively, transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“turn to page twenty; turn through the book”
(transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.

“I fell off my bike and turned my ankle severely.”
(transitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.
(intransitive)To make a non-linear physical movement.
(copulative, intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“Near-synonyms: become, get, go, come, fall, grow, wax”
“The leaves turn brown in autumn.”
“When I asked him for the money, he turned nasty.”
“Charlie turns six on September 29.”
“Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“The hillside behind our house isn't generally much to look at, but once all the trees turn it's gorgeous.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“Midas made everything turn to gold. He turned into a monster every full moon.”
“At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.”
“Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“This milk has turned; it smells awful.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“to turn cider or wine”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“How long ago was he turned?”
“His companions had turned him on purpose. Annie, bless her heart, was immune.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“Bruce Banner turns when he is angry: he becomes the Hulk, an incredibly powerful green monster.”
(intransitive, offensive, slang, sometimes, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“We may not be made gay or lesbian in the sense of being “turned” by some error in parenting or child rearing, but we are certainly biologically made and raised (most of us) by straights.”
“An old homophobic fantasy has it that a gay man or lesbian can be “turned” by a fulfilling sexual encounter with someone of the opposite sex”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“The decision turns on a single fact.”
“[…] Conditions of Peace certainly do turn upon Events of War.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“The prisoners turned on the warden.”
“‘You little Fool!’ returned her sister, shaking her with the sharp pull she gave her arm. ‘Have you no spirit at all? But that’s just the way! You have no self-respect, you have no becoming pride, just as you allow yourself to be followed about by a contemptible little Chivery of a thing,’ with the scornfullest emphasis, ‘you would let your family be trodden on, and never turn.’”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.
(ambitransitive, intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“Ile looke no more, / Leaſt my braine turne,[…]”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.

“The sight turned my stomach.”
(intransitive, transitive)To change condition or attitude.
(reflexive)To change one's course of action; to take a new approach.

“And they made a calfe in thoſe dayes / and offered ſacrifice vnto the ymage / and reioyſed in the workes of theyr awne hondes. / Then God turned hym ſilfe / and gave them vp /[…]”
“Turne from thy fierce wrath,[…]”
“The Mind receiving the Ideas, mentioned in the foregoing Chapter, from without, when it turns its view inward upon its ſelf,[…]”
“Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.”
(transitive, usually)To complete.

“They say they can turn the parts in two days.”
(transitive)To make (money); turn a profit.

“We turned a pretty penny with that little scheme.”
(transitive)Of a player, to go past an opposition player with the ball in one's control.

“Liverpool introduced Carroll for Spearing and were rewarded after 64 minutes when he put them back in contention. Stewart Downing blocked Jose Bosingwa's attempted clearance, which fell into the path of Carroll. He turned John Terry superbly before firing high past Cech.”
To undergo the process of turning on a lathe.

“Ivory turns well.”
To bring down the feet of a child in the womb, in order to facilitate delivery.
(dated)To invert a type of the same thickness, as a temporary substitute for any sort which is exhausted.
(archaic)To translate.

“to turn the Iliad”
“who turns a Persian tale for half a crown”
(transitive)To magically or divinely repel undead.

noun

A change of direction or orientation.

“Give the handle a turn, then pull it.”
“With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where[…]lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks. In turn he smiled and also shrugged a shoulder.”
A movement of an object about its own axis in one direction that continues until the object returns to its initial orientation.
A movement of an object about its own axis in one direction that continues until the object returns to its initial orientation.
A walk to and fro.

“Let's take a turn in the garden.”
“"I've made a turn round the place, sir, and the light was on," was the reply.”
A chance to use something shared in sequence with others.

“They took turns playing with the new toy.”
“With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where[…]lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks. In turn he smiled and also shrugged a shoulder.”
A spell of work, especially the time allotted to a person in a rota or schedule.

“I cooked tonight, so it's your turn to do the dishes.”
One's chance to make a move in a game having two or more players.
A figure in music, often denoted ~, consisting of the note above the one indicated, the note itself, the note below the one indicated, and the note itself again.
The time required to complete a project.

“They quote a three-day turn on parts like those.”
The transition from one period or era, or hour on the clock, to another.

“turn of the century”
“[…] by cajolery and innuendo she had persuaded him to go to the picture palace to be cheered up, and as it was now on the turn of eleven he might be expected back at any moment.”
“By about 1300, Hungary's population was three times what it had been at the turn of the millenium.”
“[…]As long as ocean water's salt, And birch-trees feel the winds' assault, And crows build nests at winter's turn, Darling, I shall never return.”
“Writers arrive, in extremely small numbers, only at the turn of the Victorian era into the Edwardian era when modern Pan-Africanism was being born.”
A fit or a period of giddiness.

“I've had a funny turn.”
“I'm sure I never shall forget the turn young Simmons gave me when he came in with that paper as he'd been and copied out of a winder thro' being in a west-end house, […]”
“'Then you must know as well as the rest of us that there was something queer about that gentleman—something that gave a man a turn—I don't know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this: that you felt it in your marrow kind of cold and thin.'”
A change in temperament or circumstance.

“She took a turn for the worse.”
A sideways movement of the ball when it bounces (caused by rotation in flight).
The fourth communal card in Texas hold 'em.
(obsolete)The flop (the first three community cards) in Texas hold 'em.
A deed done to another; an act of kindness or malice.

“One good turn deserves another.”
“I felt that the man was of a vindictive nature, and would do me an evil turn if he found the opportunity[…].”
A single loop of a coil.
A pass behind or through an object.
Character; personality; nature.

“It was fortunate for his comfort, perhaps, that the man who had been chosen to accompany him was of a talkative turn, for the prisoners insisted upon hearing the story of the explosion a dozen times over, and Rufus Dawes himself had been roused to give the name of the vessel with his own lips.”
An instance of going past an opposition player with the ball in one's control.
(especially, physical)A short skit, act, or routine.

“Between the pieces were individual turns, comic songs and dances.”
(dated)A type turned upside down to serve for another character that is not available.
(UK, historical)The profit made by a stockjobber, being the difference between the buying and selling prices.

“There are usually at least two jobbers who specialise in the leading stocks, and this acts to keep the jobber's turn to a reasonable amount […]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

See full etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-der. Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos)bor. Latin tornus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin tornōbor. Proto-West Germanic *turnēn Old English turnian ▲ Latin tornō Old French tornerbor. Middle English turnen English turn From Middle English turnen, from Old English turnian, tyrnan (“to turn, rotate, revolve”), from Proto-West Germanic *turnēn (“to turn, lathe”) (also the source of German turnen and its derivatives) and Old French torner (“to turn”), both from Latin tornāre (“to round off, turn in a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”), from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “turning-lathe: a tool used for making circles”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by turning, turn, twist, bore”). Cognate with Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist, wind”), whence English throw. Displaced native Middle English wenden from Old English wendan (see wend), and Middle English trenden from Old English trendan (see trend), among several other terms.