turnover

Pluralturnovers

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The total amount of money a business receives from sales over a given period.

   Annual turnover at the firm exceeded ten million dollars last year.

   Investors compared turnover across the three retail chains before buying shares.

   Similarrevenue, sales, income, takings, receipts

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The rate at which stock is sold and replaced, employees leave and are replaced, or property changes hands.

   Like a revolving door: a constant cycle of departures and arrivals.

   High employee turnover forced the company to spend heavily on training new hires.

   Rental properties near the campus see rapid turnover as students move each year.

   Similarchurn, attrition

   Oppositeretention

   Note

   Here the word measures movement rather than money, and the two are easy to confuse in a business report: the sales total is a sum, while this is a rate. It pairs naturally with high and low (a high turnover, high staff turnover), and the compound is sometimes hyphenated as staff-turnover. A high figure usually signals trouble, such as low morale among employees or tenants who leave quickly.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A loss of possession of the ball to the opposing team without scoring.

   A late turnover gave the visitors one final chance to score.

   The coaches drilled ball security all week to cut down on turnovers.

   Note

   A statistic as much as an event: sportswriters tally turnovers the way they tally points, as in Robert Kitson's 2019 World Cup report, where Australia's 18 turnovers were "a costly case of self-harm." A team commits a turnover, a verb that frames it as a fault rather than bad luck. Possession changes hands, but nothing goes on the scoreboard.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A semicircular pastry made by folding one half of a round piece of dough over the other to enclose a filling such as fruit.

   He warmed a peach turnover in the oven and ate it with his coffee.

   The café sells cherry turnovers dusted with powdered sugar.

   Note

   Named for the fold that makes it: the noun comes from the verb phrase turn over, and the pastry is that motion baked into shape. The filling is named first, as in apple turnover or cherry turnover, so the flavor works like an adjective. It counts like any other baked item: one turnover, a tray of turnovers.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The act of overturning something, or the result of being overturned; an upset.

   The canoe's sudden turnover dumped all our gear into the lake.

   A turnover of the compost pile every few weeks keeps it from compacting.

   Similarupset, capsize, flip

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A runner's leg speed, measured as the number of strides taken per minute.

   Sprinters work on turnover with short, fast drills on the track.

   His turnover dropped late in the marathon as fatigue set in.

   Similarcadence

7. 7
   adjective

   Capable of being turned over, or designed so that it can be turned over.

   The shirt's turnover cuffs can be worn folded back or left straight.

   A turnover mattress should be flipped regularly to wear evenly on both sides.

   Similarreversible

   Note

   The adjective almost always stands before a noun, and it often appears in clothing: a turnover collar, turnover cuffs. Women's Wear of Toronto in 1922 admired gloves with "turnover cuffs piped and embroidered." It cannot be graded, since nothing is more turnover than something else. After a verb, English prefers the phrasal verb: the collar turns over.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   In printing and publishing, text that does not fit in its allotted line or space and continues onto the next line or page; also called a runover.

   Each turnover in the index is indented to keep long entries easy to scan.

   The designer shortened the caption to eliminate an awkward turnover.

   Similarrunover

   Note

   A typesetter's term for matter that spills past its first line, and fully interchangeable with runover. It turns up in index entries, headlines and captions, where the carried-over line is usually set with a hanging indent so the reader can see that it continues the line above. In short display text, editors often trim a word or two to avoid one.

Showing meanings only. Show all 9