turn out
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: turns out
form: turning out
form: turned out
form: turned out
Etymology: From Middle English turnen out, tornen out, equivalent to turn + out.
The slang and prison terms meaning "to turn into a prostitute, etc." are probably an ellipsis for turn (inside) out (“to flip someone's character or role”).
Senses: examples: text: I had hoped our first meeting would turn out better.
text: The truth turned out to be more depressing than we thought.
text: I couldn't have assisted anyway, as it turned out.
text: He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 2:
text: I should like this to be the result, gentlemen, assuming it be for your advantage and my own; and I should like to be successful in my defence; but I think that it will be difficult, and I am quite aware of the nature of my task. However, let that turn out as God wills; I must obey the law and make my defence.
ref: 1954, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick, “Socrates on Trial: The Apology”, in The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics), Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 21:
text: The thing we’ll all remember is Arya Stark, Supreme Badass Of The Seven Kingdoms. Not Jon Snow, not Daenerys, but the pint-size warrior who spends the first part of the fight just annihilating White Walkers one after the other, then turns out to be the one who deals the killing blow to the Night King.
ref: 2019 April 28, Alex McLevy, “Game Of Thrones Suffers the Fog of War in the Battle against the Dead (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 31 May 2021:
glosses: To end up; to result.
examples: text: I'm afraid the cake didn't turn out.
qualifier: by ellipsis
glosses: To succeed; work out; turn out well.
examples: text: Hundreds of people turned out to see the parade.
text: The train is usually crowded and half the township of Forres seems to turn out to watch it go off.
ref: 1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:
glosses: To attend; show up.
examples: text: But then one of Mr. Knott's men would have had to put on his coat and hat and turn out, as likely as not in the pitch dark, and in torrents of rain in all probability, and grope his way in the dark in the pours of rain, with the pot of food in his hand, a wretched and ridiculous figure, to where the dog lay.
ref: 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
glosses: To go out; to leave one's home.
examples: text: Turn out the lights before you leave.
text: The day grew strong, and showed itself outside, even against the flaming lights within. The lights were turned out, and the work went on.
ref: 1854, Dickens, chapter 11, in Hard Times:
text: It's one of those books you have to go on reading long after you know you should turn out the light unless you want to feel like hell the next morning.
ref: 1984 December 29, Judith Barrington, “Dyke Detectives Solve Murder Mysteries”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 7:
synonyms: turn off
switch out
switch off
glosses: To extinguish a light or other device.
examples: text: It turns out that he just made a lucky guess.
text: As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: The Ivorian is a player with such a liking for improvisation it does not usually look like he has any more idea than anyone else what he is going to do next, so it was an interesting choice. As it turned out, it was a masterstroke. The striker was full of running, played with a more direct shoot-on-sight approach than normal and finished with two goals and an assist.
ref: 2012 September 15, Amy Lawrence, “Arsenal's Gervinho enjoys the joy of six against lowly Southampton”, in the Guardian:
glosses: To become apparent or known, especially (as) it turns out
examples: text: The bakery turns out three hundred pies each day.
text: This new locomotive was turned out of Doncaster works in May, 1934, to a mighty fanfare of trumpets.
ref: 1942 February, O. S. Nock, “The Locomotives of Sir Nigel Gresley: Part VII”, in Railway Magazine, page 44:
glosses: To produce; make.
examples: text: Turn out at the third driveway.
glosses: To leave a road.
examples: text: Turn out the dough onto a board and shape it.
text: He had found the pocket, and was turning out the contents.
ref: 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
glosses: To remove from a mould, bowl etc.
examples: text: Please turn out your pockets.
text: The security guard asked everyone to turn out their bags.
glosses: To empty for inspection.
examples: text: The hotel staff hastened to turn out the noisy drunk.
text: The poor family were turned out of their lodgings at only an hour's notice.
text: The whole lot of grafters was later turned out of office.
text: A fine life I should have if I left this country at my age and spent the rest of my days trying one city after another and being turned out every time!
ref: 1954, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick, “Socrates on Trial: The Apology”, in The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics), Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 45:
text: There the North British, having apparently decided that we had sufficiently wallowed in luxury, turned us out and loaded us into ancient four-wheelers, which were then attached to the rear of the night express (8.15 from Kings Cross).
ref: 1957 July 23, M. D. Greville, “A Diamond Jubilee of Railway Memories”, in Railway Magazine, page 459:
text: And so the teacher turned it out
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.
ref: 1998, Jonathan Langley, Collins Bedtime Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Tales, Mary Had a Little Lamb, page 39:
coordinate_terms: turn away
turn down
glosses: To refuse service or shelter; to eject or evict.
examples: text: He then turned her out onto the streets of Chicago with a quota to meet: $500 for a night's work.
ref: 2008, Carolyn Maloney, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated:
text: Like I told you, I'm still turning this one bitch out. […] Sunday is three days away, if you ain't turned her out by then she ain't worth it.
ref: 2008, Joseph B. Haggerty, Sr., Shame: The Story of a Pimp, page 361:
text: The nigga that turned her out was named Derek “Sweets” D. I despised that pimping motherfucker with passion.
ref: 2012, Eyes . . . JB, If I Should Die Tonight: The Untold Stories, page 18:
topics: lifestyle
sex
sexuality
glosses: To convince a person (usually a woman) to become a prostitute.
topics: lifestyle
sex
sexuality
glosses: To rape; to coerce an otherwise heterosexual individual into performing a homosexual role.
glosses: To put (cattle) out to pasture.
examples: text: turn out potential voters
glosses: To convince to vote
glosses: To leave one's work to take part in a strike.
glosses: To get out of bed; get up.
Derived terms: turnout
Related terms: come out
crank out
end up
put out
turn
turn away
turn off
turn up