turn-up

English

Alternative forms

• turnup

Etymology

Deverbal from turn up.

Noun

turn-up (plural turn-ups)

1. Fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers to make them shorter.

   Synonyms: cuff, (US) trouser cuff

   Why does all this fluff accumulate in the turn-ups?

2. (dated) A fight or disturbance.
   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 26, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1853, →OCLC:

     I was passable enough when I went with the tinker, though nothing to boast of then; but what with blowing the fire with my mouth when I was young, and spileing my complexion, and singeing my hair off, and swallering the smoke, and what with being nat’rally unfort’nate in the way of running against hot metal and marking myself by sich means, and what with having turn-ups with the tinker as I got older, almost whenever he was too far gone in drink—which was almost always—my beauty was queer, wery queer, even at that time.

3. (card games) The next card taken from the top of a pack of cards and displayed.

   I'll bet $10 that the next turn-up is an ace.

5. (figurative) A stroke of good luck; something that appears unexpectedly; especially in turn up for the book.
   • 1896, Henry Smurthwaite, Racing Illustrated, volume 3, page 236:

     Despondent settled down favourite, but ran badly, and the fielders had a fine turn up by the success of Carlton Spring, on whom Allsopp jumped off in front and stayed there.

   • 2001 December 9, Andrew Martin, “We like drinking too much, so why do we do it so badly?”, in The Observer‎:

     I thought ‘now here's a turn up’, for I was not to know I would be invited to drinks every day for the next three years.

Translations

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “turn-up n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• “Turn up” in [John Camden Hotten], The Slang Dictionary , 5th edition, London: Chatto and Windus, 1874, page 331.

Anagrams

• upturn