by turns

English

Adverb

by turns (not comparable)

1. One after the other; successively; alternating.
   • 1995, Robin Sweeney, “Too Butch to Be Bi (or You Can't Judge a Boy by Her Lover)”, in Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, Rebecca Kaplan, editors, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions‎, Binghamton: The Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 185:

     I am by turns angry and amused. I am the butchest of the three roommates; obviously she thought I was the most likely to get over my “bisexual phase.”

2. (obsolete) At intervals; from time to time.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     [They] feel by turns the bitter change.

Translations

See also

• in turn
• in turns