turn 
The river nobly foams and flows, 
The charm of this enchanted ground, 
And all its thousand turnt disclose 
Some fresher beauty varying round. 
Bijroti, Chikle Harold, iii. ">5 (song), 
(c) A variation in the course of events ; a change in the 
order, position, tendency, or aspect of things ; hence, 
change in general ; chance ; happening ; befalling, 
O 'Tis a Heav'nly and a happy turn, 
Of godly Parents to be timely born. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's W eeks, ii. , The Fathers. 
'Tis a happy Turn for us, when Kings are made Friends 
again. This was the end of this Embassy, and I hope it 
will last our days. Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 3. 
Blame not the turns of fate, and chance of war. 
Addison, The Campaign. 
(d) Turning-point; crisis; the point at which a change 
must come : as, the turn of the year ; the turn of a 
fever. 
And yet the spring was breaking forth, as it always does 
in Devonshire when the turn of the days is even. 
R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, vii. 
(e) A twist, bias, or cast. 
It would, in fact, be almost impossible to give a tragic 
turn to any proceedings for contempt of Court. 
a. Hall, Society in Elizabethan Age, x. 
3. Form ; shape ; mold. 
I have sometimes wondered to see the Roman poets, in 
their descriptions of a beautiful man, so often mentioning 
the turn of his neck and arms, that in our modern dresses 
lie out of sight, and are covered under part of the clothing. 
Addison, Ancient Medals, ii. 
4. Tendency; bent; aptitude; disposition; hu- 
mor: as, a person of a lively turn. 
A man should always go with inclination to the turn of 
the company he is going into, or not pretend to be of the 
party. Steels, Spectator, No. 386. 
This Abd el cader no sooner was arrived at Masuah than, 
following the turn of his country for lying, he spread a 
report that a great man or prince whom he left at Jidda 
was coming speedily to Slasuah. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, 1. 292. 
I never had the least turn for dress never any notion 
of fancy or elegance. Miss Burney, Evelina, Ixxxiii. 
Mrs. Bennet had no turn for economy. 
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, p. 261. 
But these things must have come to you with your 
mother's blood. I never knew a Pyncheon that had any 
turn for them. Hawthorne, Seven Gables, v. 
5. Particular form or character; mode; style. 
The Turk I mention'd . . . came after this happen'd to 
see me, who I found was so disagreeable to the Aga that 
he order'd him to leave the house, giving it this turn, that 
he would not permit the people to come and teize me for 
presents. Pocoelce, Description of the East, I. 119. 
The very turn of voice, the good pronunciation, and the 
polite and alluring manner which some teachers have at- 
tained will engage the attention. 
Watts, Improvement of the Mind, i. 2. 
The conventional atmosphere of a drawing-room, in 
which the gravest problems were apt to be forgotten in 
the flash of an epigram or the turn of a bon mot. 
The Century, XLI. 804. 
No man rallies with a better grace, and in more sprightly 
turns. Surift, Tale of a Tub, Ep. Ded. 
6. In music, a melodic embellishment or grace, 
consisting of a principal tone with two auxiliary 
tones lying respectively next above and below 
it in the diatonic series. It is indicated by the sign ~ . 
When the sign is placed over the given note the upper 
auxiliary tone is sounded first ; bnt when it is placed after 
Written. 
-ft m 
Performed. 
the given note that note is sounded first. Chromatic al- 
terations are indicated by accidentals over or under the 
sign. A turn occurring in two parts at once is called 
double, and is indicated by the sign ~. A turn in which 
the lower auxiliary tone is performed first is called in- 
verted or a back-turn, and is indicated by the sign J. 
7. One round or return of rope, cord, or the 
like, when laid in a coil or skein. 8. A short 
walk, ride, or drive which includes a going and 
a returning; a promenade. 
You and I must walk a turn together. 
Shak., Hen. VIII., v. 1. 94. 
He told me that his master came to town last night, and 
would be glad to take a. turn with me in Grays-Inn walks. 
Addison, Spectator, No. 269. 
Moore left his desk, and permitted himself the recrea- 
tion of one or two turns through the room. 
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, xxviii. 
9. A spell, as of work; a job: as, he has not 
done a turn of work for several months. 
Not able . . . to do a hand's turn for myself. 
Lever, Davenport Dunn, v. 
10. Opportunity or privilege enjoyed in alter- 
nation with another or with others ; the time or 
occasion which comes in due rotation or order 
6540 
to each of a number of persons when anything 
has to be got or to be done ; recurring chance 
or opportunity. 
The nymph will have her turn to be 
The tutor ; and the pupil, he. 
Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa. 
Even the few solitaries left on guard at Mr. Atkinson's 
. . . condescend a little, as they drowsily bide or recall 
their turn chasing the ebbing Neptune on the ribbed sea- 
sand. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, xvi. 
11. An act; deed; especially, an incidental or 
opportune act, deed, office, or service; act of 
kindness or of malice : as, a shrewd turn. 
In requyting a good tourne, shew not thy selfe negligent 
nor contrarye. Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), P. 106. 
For your kindness I owe you a good turn. 
Shak., M. for M., iv. 2. 62. 
One good turn requires another. 
Beau, and Fl., Little French Lawyer, iii. 2. 
Chilon was wont to say, That it is commendable in men 
to forget bad turnes done, but to bee mindefull of courte- 
sies receiued. Heywood, Hierarchy of Angels, p. 535. 
12. A stratagem; a trick. 
Of all the tornes that he cowthe he schewed him but oon. 
Tale ofOamelyn, L 244. 
13. Convenience; requirement; emergency; 
present need: as, to serve one's turn. 
Pilia. Jew, I must have more gold. 
Bar. Why, want'st thou any of thy tale? 
Pilia.. No, but three hundred will not serve his turn. 
Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 5. 
But for my daughter Katherine, this I know, 
She is not for your turn. Shak., T. of the S., ii. 1. 63. 
And if the garden would not serve their turn, then was 
the park the fittest place. 
Court and Times of Charles L, I. 33. 
The Bible is shut against them [hinderers of reforma- 
tion] as certaine that neither Plato nor Aristotle is for 
their lurnes. Milton, Reformation in Eng., ii. 
14. A nervous shock, such as is caused by 
alarm or sudden excitement. [Colloq.] 
What a hard-hearted monster you must be, John, not to 
have said so at once, and saved me such a turn! 
Dickens, Cricket on the Hearth, ii. 
Mrs. Tulliver gave a little scream as she saw her, and 
felt such a turn that she dropped the large gravy-spoon 
into the dish, with the most serious results to the table- 
cloth. George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, i. 7. 
15f. An execution by hanging: from the former 
practice of making the criminal stand on a lad- 
der, which was turned over at a signal, leaving 
him suspended. 16f. In law, same as tourii. 
17. pi. In med., monthly courses ; menses. 
18. In furriery, a bundle of five dozen skins. 
19. A load ; a pack ; as much as can be car- 
ried at one time by a man or an animal. 
Sometimes he would bring a turn of wood, sometimes a 
bag of meal or potatoes. 
J. C. Harris, Harper's Mag., LXXVI. 704. 
20. In printing, a type turned upside down and 
showing black in proof, as a temporary substi- 
tute for a letter that is missing; also, a letter 
wrongly placed so that the face is turned. 
He shows a curious printer's blunder at the end of one 
page, where the whole of the last reference-line is put in 
upside down. ... A turn of this magnitude could hardly 
have occurred if the letters had been set in the forme type 
by type. Encyc. Brit., XXIII. 69S. 
By turns, (a) One after another ; alternately ; in suc- 
cession. 
Every one of the flue went through the guard to fetch a 
child.- each after other by turns. 
Capt. John Smith, Works, I. 140. 
By turns to that, by turns to this a prey, 
She knows what reason yields, and dreads what madness 
may. Crabbe, Works, I. 61. 
And love and prayer unite, or rule the hour by turns. 
Byron, Childe Harold, i. 67. 
(6) At intervals. 
Feel by turns the bitter change. 
Milton. F. L., ii. 598. 
Dead turns. A dynamo-electric machine through which 
the current is kept constant is found to have an electro- 
motive force nearly proportional to the angular velocity 
of the armature less a constant. This constant, expressed 
in turns per second or per minute, has been called the 
dead turns of the machine. Direct turn, in music, an 
ordinary turn, as distinguished from an inverted turn. 
Ill turn, (a) An unkind, injurious, or spiteful act. (6) 
A change for the worse, especially in a case of illness. 
In turn, in due order of succession. On the turn, at the 
turning-point; hence, changing; altering; on the point 
of or in process of reversal ; as, the tide is now on the 
turn; our fortunes are on the turn. 
And now by-gynneth tin gyle a gayn on the turne, 
And my grace to growe ay wydder and wydder. 
Piers Plowman (C), xxi. 402. 
Partial turn, in music, a turn in which the last tone is 
prolonged, so that the first three tones amount to a triple 
appoggiatura. In a slow tempo a turn on a long note is 
usually thus rendered. Racking turns. See rocAri. 
Round turn. Sec roundi. Sheriff's turn. SeesAeri/i. 
The turn of a hair. See Aairi. To a turn, to a 
nicety ; exactly ; perfectly ; as, the meat is done to a turn : 
from the practice of roasting meat on a revolving spit. 
turnbuckle 
She watched the fish with as much tender care and 
minuteness of attention ... as if her own heart were 
on the gridiron, and her immortal happiness were in- 
volved in its being done precisely to a tarn! 
Hawthorne, Seven Gables, vii. 
To serve a turn, the turn, or one's turn, to be suffi- 
cient for the purpose, occasion, or emergency ; answer the 
purpose. 
A cloak as long as thine will serve the turn. 
Shak, T. G. of V., iii. 1. 131. 
To take a turn, to take a short walk, ride, or drive. See 
def. 8. To take one's turn, to occupy the place be- 
longing to one, or to do what is assigned to one, in proper 
or allotted order. To take turns, to take each the 
other's place alternately. Turn about. See about. 
Turn and turn about. Same as turn about. 
Tacitus says that the land in his time was occupied by 
the whole community turn and turn about. Brougham.. 
Enoch would hold possession for a week : 
"This is my house, and this my little wife." 
"Mine too," said Philip, '-turn and turn about." 
Tennyson, Enoch Arden. 
Turn of life. See menopause. Tom toll. See toin. 
turnabout (tern'a-bout"), . 1. A merry-go- 
round; a carrousel. 
The high swings and the turnabouts ; the tests of the 
strength of limb and lung. Harper's Hay., LXXIX. 560. 
2. One who turns things about; an agitator; 
an innovator. 
Our modern turnabouts cannot evince us but that we feel 
we are best affected when the great mysteries of Christ are 
celebrated upon anniversary festivals. 
Bp. Hacket, Abp. Williams, ii. 36. (Davies.) 
3. A disease in cattle characterized by giddi- 
ness and staggering. 
The Turn-about and Murrain trouble Cattel. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Furies. 
turn-again-gentlemen (tern ' a- gen- jen ' tl- 
men), .. The martagon, or Turk's-cap lily. 
Britten and Holland. [Prov. Eng.] 
Turnagra (ter'na-gril), n. [NL. (Lesson, 1837). 
prob. < Tur(dug) + (Ta)nagra.j A genus of 
thrush-like birds peculiar to New Zealand. T. 
crassirostris, originally described by Latham in 1783 as the 
Turnagra crassirostris. 
thick-billed thrush, was formerly common on the South 
Island of New Zealand, bnt is now nearly extinct. A sec- 
ond species is T. tanagra of the North Island. Also called 
Keropia, Otagon, and Ceropia. 
turnback (tern'bak), . In saddlery, a local 
name for the strap which goes from the hames 
back to the hip-strap. See cut under harin'nn. 
turn-bench (tern 'bench), M. A simple portable 
lathe, used by clock- and watch-makers. 
turn-bridge (tern'brij), n. A swing- or swivel- 
bridge ; a pivot -bridge. Also turning-bridge. 
E. H. Knigltt. See cut under bridge^. 
The span of all the turnbridyes is 75 ft. in the clear. 
The Engineer, LXX. 391. 
turnbroacht (tern'broch), n. [Early mod. E. 
turn-brnche ; < turn, r., + obj. broach.'} A turn- 
spit. 
Turne-broches, les galopins. 
Palsgrave, p. 909 (Du Guez, Introductorie). 
Has not a deputy married his cook-maid? 
An alderman's widow one that was her turn-broach? 
Beau, and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, iii. 1. 
turnbuckle (tern'buk'l), n. A device for con- 
necting and tightening two parts of a metal 
rod or bar. It is essentially a right-and-left screw 
coupling. A common form is that of a link one or both 
Open Turnbnckle. 
ends of which screw on the ends of the parts of the bar: if 
one end, the other is Btted with a swivel; if both ends, one 
has a right-handed and tin other a left-handed screw. 
Plpe-turnbuckle, a right-ami left pipe-coupling.- Sin- 
