turn over

English

Etymology

to turn + over

Pronunciation

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Verb

turn over (third-person singular simple present turns over, present participle turning over, simple past and past participle turned over)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn,‎ over.
2. To flip over; to rotate uppermost to bottom.

   Turn over the box and look at the bottom.

3. (transitive, idiomatic) To relinquish; give back.

   They turned over the evidence to the authorities.

4. (transitive, idiomatic) To transfer.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. IX, Working Aristocracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):

     But what is to be done with our manufacturing population […] This one thing, of doing for them by ‘underselling all people,’ and filling our own bursten pockets and appetites by the road; and turning over all care for any ‘population,’ or human or divine consideration except cash only, to the winds, with a “Laissez-faire” and the rest of it: this is evidently not the thing.

5. (transitive, idiomatic) To produce, complete, or cycle through.

   They can turn over about three hundred units per hour.

6. (transitive, business) To generate (a certain amount of money from sales).

   The business turned over £1m last year.

7. (transitive) To mull, ponder
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood , New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons , →OCLC:

     Thus they dwelled for nearly a year, and in that time Robin Hood often turned over in his mind many means of making an even score with the Sheriff

8. (transitive, intransitive) To spin the crankshaft of an internal combustion engine using the starter or hand crank in an attempt to make it run.
9. (transitive, sports) To give up control (of the ball and thus the ability to score).

   The Giants didn't turn the ball over in their last four games.

10. (transitive) To cause extensive disturbance or disruption to (a room, storage place, etc.), e.g. while searching for an item, or ransacking a property.

    I've turned over the whole place, but I still can't find my glasses.

    Thieves turned over the apartment while the owners were away on holiday.

Related terms

• turn over a new leaf
• turn over in one's grave
• turnover
• turn in
• hand over

Translations

Anagrams

• overturn