turn out

Formsturns out, turning out, turned out

1. 1
   resultphrasal verbidiomaticintransitive

   To end up a particular way, or be a particular thing, as the result of what happens.

   Despite the rain, the picnic turned out wonderfully.

   Nobody can say how a child will turn out, however carefully they are raised.

   Similarend, prove, develop

   Note

   It behaves like a linking verb: what follows can be an adjective (it turned out fine), an adverb (it turned out better than we hoped), or even a bare noun, as when The Celebrity, by the American novelist Winston Churchill, imagines a man who might turn out a celebrity. That last pattern can look like the "produce" meaning, since a school turns out graduates too; here, though, nobody is making anything.

2. 2
   prove to bephrasal verbidiomaticintransitive

   To become apparent or known, especially in the phrases it turns out and as it turns out.

   It turns out that the missing keys were in his coat pocket all along.

   Rumors like these often turn out to be false.

   Similarprove, emerge, transpire

   Note

   Two fixed frames carry most of this sense: it turns out that introduces what has come to light, and as it turned out looks back on how events proved to be. With an ordinary subject, turned out to be does the same work, as when a newcomer turns out to be a powerful youngster. Unlike ending up, nothing changes here except what we know.

3. 3
   show upphrasal verbidiomaticintransitive

   To come and be present at an event or gathering; to show up.

   Thousands of fans turned out to welcome the team home.

   Only a handful of members bothered to turn out for the vote.

   Similarattend, come, gather, assemble

   Note

   The subject is usually a crowd or a number rather than one person: hundreds turned out to see the parade, and half the township of Forres would turn out to watch a train go off. A to-infinitive or for names what drew them, and how many came is the noun turn-out.

4. 4
   switch offphrasal verbidiomatictransitive

   To switch off a light or other device.

   She turned out the lamp and lay listening to the rain.

   Turn out the gas under the kettle before it boils dry.

   Similarextinguish, douse

   Note

   Lights and flames are its natural objects, things with a glow to put out: Dickens in Hard Times has the lights turned out as the day grows strong. The particle moves freely, so you turn out the light or turn the light out, and with a pronoun only turn it out. For a radio or a computer, turn off and switch off are the usual choices.

5. 5
   noun · turn-out

   Another spelling of turnout.

   Voter turn-out was the lowest the county had seen in decades.

   The farmer drove to church in his best turn-out, a polished gig behind two matched bays.

   Note

   Hyphenated here, or closed up as turnout, the noun gathers several of the verb's senses into one word: the size of a crowd or an election vote, a roadside pull-off, an output of goods. It can also mean what is put on show, such as dress or a carriage with its horses: in The Demon Bowler, a cricketer boasts that his turn-out was unexceptionable. The plural is turn-outs.

6. 6
   producephrasal verbidiomatictransitive

   To produce or make something, as a factory, workshop, or school does.

   The plant can turn out two thousand cars a week.

   The nursing program has turned out some of the best nurses in the state.

   Similarproduce, make, manufacture, churn

   Note

   The phrase suggests steady output in numbers: pies a day, cars a week, graduates a year, which makes it at home with factories, workshops and schools. In the passive, the place of making can follow of, as when a new locomotive was turned out of Doncaster works in May 1934 to a fanfare of trumpets.

7. 7
   phrasal verbintransitive

   To succeed or come out well.

   None of the night shots turned out, so we'll have to go back.

   If the recipe doesn't turn out, we'll order pizza.

   Similarwork, succeed

   Oppositefail, flop

   Note

   Here well has been dropped and the meaning kept: a cake that didn't turn out failed, and night shots that never turned out are useless. The bare form sounds most natural in the negative and in questions, as in did the photos turn out? When things go right, people usually keep the adverb and say they turned out well.

8. 8
   force to leavephrasal verbidiomatictransitive

   To force someone to leave a place, or to refuse them service or shelter.

   The landlord turned the whole family out into the street in January.

   Voters turned the mayor out of office after a single term.

   Similarevict, expel, eject, oust

   Oppositeadmit

   Note

   With of, the place or position someone loses follows: a family turned out of its lodgings, grafters turned out of office. Landlords and hotels do it, but so do voters, and turned out of office is a fixed phrase for losing power. In Plato's Apology, as Hugh Tredennick translated it in 1954, Socrates pictures himself turned out of one city after another.

9. 9
   get votersphrasal verbtransitive

   To persuade people to come out and vote.

   The campaign spent millions trying to turn out young voters.

   Volunteers knocked on every door in the final week to turn out the vote.

   Similarmobilize

   Note

   This is the causative partner of showing up: voters turn out, and a campaign turns them out. The object can be the people, as in turn out potential voters, or, in a fixed phrase of election work, the vote itself, as in turn out the vote. It is about getting people to the polls, not about which way they vote.

10. 10
    remove from moldphrasal verbtransitive

    To remove something from a mold, bowl, or similar container.

    Let the custard set overnight before you turn it out onto a serving plate.

    She turned out the loaf and tapped the bottom to hear whether it sounded hollow.

    Similarunmold

    Note

    Recipes use it for tipping something out whole, and the landing place follows onto: turn the dough out onto a board, turn a set custard out onto a plate. The object is what comes out, not the bowl or mold it leaves, and the point is that it arrives in one piece, ready to shape or serve.

Showing meanings only. Show all 18