Definition of "turn"

turn¹

/tɜːn/

verb
third-person singular simple present turns, present participle turning, simple past and past participle turned or (obsolete) turnt
1. To make a non-linear physical movement.
  1. (intransitive) Of a body, person, etc, to move around an axis through itself.
    Quotations
    "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. […]."
    1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
  2. (transitive) To change the direction or orientation of, especially by rotation.
    Quotations
    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.
    1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], pages 9–10
    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.
    2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist
  3. (intransitive) To change one's direction of travel.
    Quotations
    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.
    1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 12
    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.
    1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
  4. (transitive) To shape (something) symmetrically by rotating it against a stationary cutting tool, as on a lathe.
  5. (by extension) To give form to; to shape or mould; to adapt.
    Quotations
    […] the Poets pen turnes them to ſhapes, […]
    c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i], page 159, column 1
    […] he was perfectly well turned for the occupations of trade and commerce.
    1711 July 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 108; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, page 85
    His limbs how turn’d! how broad his ſhoulders ſpread!
    1725, Homer, “Book VIII”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, page 145, line 148
  6. (transitive) To position (something) by folding it, or using its folds.
  7. (transitive, figuratively) To navigate through a book or other printed material.
  8. (transitive) To twist or sprain.
  9. (transitive, cricket) Of a bowler, to make (the ball) move sideways off the pitch when it bounces.
  10. (intransitive, cricket) Of a ball, to move sideways off the pitch when it bounces.
2. (intransitive) To change condition or attitude.
  1. (copulative) To become (begin to be).
    Quotations
    Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.
    1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], Act III, page 39
    The former-slaves-turned-abolitionists Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano were the chief organizers of the Sons of Africa.
    2007, Junius P. Rodriguez, Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
    The midfielder turned provider moments later, his exquisite reverse pass perfectly weighted for Cisse to race on to and slide past Stoke keeper Asmir Begovic.
    2012 April 21, Jonathan Jurejko, “Newcastle 3-0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport
  2. (intransitive) To change the color of the leaves in the autumn.
  3. To change fundamentally; to metamorphose.
    Quotations
    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.
    1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Silverside”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, page 300
    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.
    2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
    (intransitive) To sour or spoil; to go bad.
    (transitive) To make acid or sour; to ferment; to curdle.
    (transitive, fantasy) To change (a person) into a vampire, werewolf, zombie, etc.
    Quotations
    His companions had turned him on purpose. Annie, bless her heart, was immune.
    2017, Michael J. Totten, Into the Wasteland: A Zombie Novel
    (intransitive, fantasy) To transform into a vampire, werewolf, zombie, etc.
  4. To reach a certain age.
  5. To hinge; to depend.
    Quotations
    […] Conditions of Peace certainly do turn upon Events of War.
    1711 December 8, published 1711, page 72
  6. To rebel; to go against something formerly tolerated.
    Quotations
    ‘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.’
    1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857
  7. To change personal condition.
    (professional wrestling) To change personalities, such as from being a face (good guy) to heel (bad guy) or vice versa.
    To become giddy; said of the head or brain.
    Quotations
    Ile looke no more, / Leaſt my braine turne, […]
    c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene vii], page 302, column 2
    To sicken; to nauseate.
    To be nauseated; said of the stomach.
3. (obsolete, reflexive) To change one's course of action; to take a new approach.
  Quotations
  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 / […]
  1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Acts vij:[41–42], folio clxiij, verso
  Turne from thy fierce wrath, […]
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Exodus 32:12, columns 1–2
  The Mind receiving the Ideas, mentioned in the foregoing Chapter, from without, when it turns its view inward upon its ſelf, […]
  1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of Simple Ideas of Reflection”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], book II, § 1, page 51
  Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.
  1914, Louis Joseph Vance, “Anarchy”, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, page 18
4. (transitive, usually with over) To complete.
5. (transitive) To make (money); turn a profit.
6. (transitive, soccer) Of a player, to go past an opposition player with the ball in one's control.
  Quotations
  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.
  2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport
7. To undergo the process of turning on a lathe.
8. (obstetrics) To bring down the feet of a child in the womb, in order to facilitate delivery.
9. (printing, dated) To invert a type of the same thickness, as a temporary substitute for any sort which is exhausted.
10. (archaic) To translate.
  Quotations
  who turns a Persian tale for half a crown
  1735, Alexander Pope, The Prologue to the Satires
11. (transitive, roleplaying games) To magically or divinely repel undead.

turn²

/tɜːn/

noun
plural turns
1. A change of direction or orientation.
  Quotations
  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.
  1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
2. A movement of an object about its own axis in one direction that continues until the object returns to its initial orientation.
  1. (geometry) A unit of plane angle measurement based on this movement.
3. A walk to and fro.
4. A chance to use (something) shared in sequence with others.
  Quotations
  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.
  1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
5. A spell of work, especially the time allotted to a person in a rota or schedule.
6. One's chance to make a move in a game having two or more players.
7. 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.
8. The time required to complete a project.
9. A fit or a period of giddiness.
  Quotations
  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, […]
  1865 September 23, “Mrs. Brown and the Emperor of the French”, in Fun‎, London: Published (for the proprietors) by Thomas Baker, page 17
  '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.'
  1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Last Night”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., pages 78–79
10. A change in temperament or circumstance.
11. (cricket) A sideways movement of the ball when it bounces (caused by rotation in flight).
12. (poker) The fourth communal card in Texas hold 'em.
13. (poker, obsolete) The flop (the first three community cards) in Texas hold 'em.
14. A deed done to another; an act of kindness or malice.
15. A single loop of a coil.
16. (rope) A pass behind or through an object.
17. Character; personality; nature.
  Quotations
  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.
  1875, Marcus Clarke, “Typhus Fever”, in His Natural Life [For the Term of His Natural Life], volume I, London: Richard Bentley and Son, page 100
18. (soccer) An instance of going past an opposition player with the ball in one's control.
19. (circus, theater, especially physical comedy) A short skit, act, or routine.
  Quotations
  Between the pieces were individual turns, comic songs and dances.
  1960, Theatre Notebook, volumes 14-16, page 122
20. (printing, dated) A type turned upside down to serve for another character that is not available.
21. (UK, finance, historical) The profit made by a stockjobber, being the difference between the buying and selling prices.
  Quotations
  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 […]
  1977, Michael Arthur Firth, Valuation of Shares and the Efficient-markets Theory, page 11

Definition of "turn"

turn1

verb

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turn2

noun

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turn¹

turn²