2 PHRASAL VERB If you cannot turn back , you cannot change your plans and decide not to do something, because the action you have already taken makes it impossible. □ [V P ] The administration has now endorsed the bill and can't turn back.
▸ turn down
1 PHRASAL VERB If you turn down a person or their request or offer, you refuse their request or offer. □ [V n P ] Before this I'd have smiled and turned her down. □ [V P n] Would you turn down $7,000,000 to appear nude in a magazine?
2 PHRASAL VERB When you turn down a radio, heater, or other piece of equipment, you reduce the amount of sound or heat being produced, by adjusting the controls. □ [V n P ] He kept turning the central heating down. □ [V P n] She could not bear the relentless music and turned down the volume.
▸ turn in
1 PHRASAL VERB When you turn in , you go to bed. [INFORMAL ] □ [V P ] Would you like some tea before you turn in?
2 PHRASAL VERB If you turn someone in , you take them to the police or tell the police where they are because they are suspected of committing a crime. If you turn yourself in , you go to the police because you have been involved in a crime. □ [V n P + to ] He has been given until noon today to turn himself in to the authorities. □ [V n P ] There would be strong incentives to turn someone in. □ [V P n] I might today hesitate to turn in a burglar.
3 PHRASAL VERB When you turn in a completed piece of work, especially written work, you give it to the person who asked you to do it. □ [V P n] Now we wait for them to turn in their essays. □ [V n P ] I want everybody to turn a report in.
4 PHRASAL VERB If you turn something in , you return it to the place or person you borrowed it from. [mainly AM ] □ [V P n] I went back to the station-house to turn in my badge and gun. [Also V n P ]
▸ turn off
1 PHRASAL VERB If you turn off the road or path you are going along, you start going along a different road or path which leads away from it. □ [V P n] The truck turned off the main road along the gravelly track which led to the farm. □ [V P ] He turned off only to find he was trapped in a town square with no easy exit.
2 → see also turn-off
3 PHRASAL VERB When you turn off a piece of equipment or a supply of something, you stop heat, sound, or water being produced by adjusting the controls. □ [V n P ] The light's a bit too harsh. You can turn it off. □ [V P n] I have to get up and turn off the radio.
4 PHRASAL VERB If something turns you off a particular subject or activity, it makes you have no interest in it. □ [V n P n] What turns teenagers off science and technology? □ [V n P ] Teaching off a blackboard is boring, and undoubtedly turns people off. [Also V P n]
5 PHRASAL VERB If something or someone turns you off , you do not find them sexually attractive or they stop you feeling sexually excited. [INFORMAL ] □ [V n P ] Aggressive men turn me off completely. [Also V P n]
6 → see also turn-off
▸ turn on
1 PHRASAL VERB When you turn on a piece of equipment or a supply of something, you cause heat, sound, or water to be produced by adjusting the controls. □ [V P n] I want to turn on the television. □ [V n P ] She asked them why they hadn't turned the lights on.
2 PHRASAL VERB If someone or something turns you on , they attract you and make you feel sexually excited. [INFORMAL ] □ [V n P ] The body that turns men on doesn't have to be perfect. [Also V P n (not pron)]
3 → see also turn-on
4 PHRASAL VERB If you say that someone turns on a particular way of behaving, you mean that they suddenly start behaving in that way, and you are often also suggesting that this is insincere. [INFORMAL ] □ [V P n] He could also turn on the style when the occasion demanded. [Also V n P ]
5 PHRASAL VERB If someone turns on you, they attack you or speak angrily to you. □ [V P n] Demonstrators turned on police, overturning vehicles and setting fire to them.
6 PHRASAL VERB If something turns on a particular thing, its success or truth depends on that thing. □ [V P n] The plot turns on an encounter with a boyhood friend.
▸ turn out
1 PHRASAL VERB If something turns out a particular way, it happens in that way or has the result or degree of success indicated. □ [V P prep] If I had known my life was going to turn out like this, I would have let them kill me. □ [V P n] Sometimes things don't turn out the way we think they're going to. □ [V P adj] I was positive things were going to turn out fine.
2 PHRASAL VERB When you are commenting on pleasant weather, you can say that is has turned out nice or fine, especially if this is unexpected. [BRIT , SPOKEN ] □ [V P adj] It's turned out nice again.
3 PHRASAL VERB If something turns out to be a particular thing, it is discovered to be that thing. □ [V P to-inf] Cosgrave's forecast turned out to be quite wrong. □ [V -ed P that] It turned out that I knew the person who got shot.
4 PHRASAL VERB When you turn out something such as a light or gas, you move the switch or knob that controls it so that it stops giving out light or heat. □ [V n P ] I'll just play until the janitor comes round to turn the lights out. [Also V P n]
5 PHRASAL VERB If a business or other organization turns out something, it produces it. □ [V P n] They have been turning out great blades for 400 years. [Also V n P ]
6 PHRASAL VERB If you turn someone out of a place, especially the place where they have been living, you force them to leave that place. □ [V n P + of/from ] Surely nobody would suggest turning him out of the house. □ [V n P ] It was previously a small monastery but the authorities turned all the monks out. [Also V P n]