at every turn
- idiom
- We just walked slowly around the cavernous interior of the building, surprised at every turn by something new.
- challenge at every turn
- stories at every turn
He's been openly pushing it at every turn.
- He's been openly pushing it at every turn.
- Let me set a few things out here so we're not doing this at every turn.
- And it is to step up to correct injustices and tackle unfairness at every turn, because injustice and unfairness are the things that drive us apart.
- It's just it, it feels like at every turn they have some control.
- So yeah, we we are a slow to evolve in terms of processes even with technological advances at every turn.
- But despite the difficulties of our lives and despite the challenges that life throws at us, we can taste life's sweetness at every turn.
- I mean, even Bret Baier, whose lips go directly on the ass of Donald Trump at every turn, he can't even hide how bad the economy is.
- And we make signs and we play the long game like the religious right has, and we take down geriatric erections at every turn that we can.
Examples
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We were faced with hard choices at every turn regarding trade-offs between aesthetics, comfort, tradition, program and sustainability.
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I have underestimated you at every turn.
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It's just it, it feels like at every turn they have some control.
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We must resist them at every turn.
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You plague our people at every turn.
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I turned to another page, then another, and at every turn encountered some reference to a dream or vision.
Fiction book (2001) -
Vice President Clinton says we should resist at every turn.
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The city is adorned with excitement and entertainment at every turn; the options are endless.
Academic text (2003) -
China has progressively liberalized its economy, while Fidel Castro has condemned market forces at every turn.
Academic text (2006) -
In his commitment to justice, he aimed to correct problems at every turn.
Synonyms
On every occasion without exception
Happens many times
At all times, on every occasion
Happens without stopping
Very often or all the time without stopping
It happens again and again
Happening again and again over time, often with short breaks
Happens many times, usually within a short time
Happens often at set times
Very often on many occasions
Always in every situation without change
Something happens on every occasion without exception
Happens again and again
All the time without stopping
At all times and in every age
At all times
At any time that something happens
As often as possible
Antonyms
How Often
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from the parts: locative 'at' + quantifier 'every' + 'turn' understood as 'occasion' yields 'on each occasion' or 'in every situation'. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings should be able to infer the MWE sense.
Etymology
At every turn comes from the picture of walking along a road and meeting a new corner or turn where something happens. If problems or chances appear at each turn, you meet them again and again, so the phrase means 'repeatedly' or 'on all occasions'.