good turn
5
2.2
- noun
:
buen favor
- So get out there and do a good turn.
Examples
-
For your kindness, I owe you a good turn!
Fiction book (1993) -
I was glad to do Max a good turn.
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And, of course, you did him a good turn last year, right?
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I could do you some good turns.
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I am to do a good turn for them.
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I give somebody a good turn, and this is what I get for it.
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At the last, he did you a good turn.
Fiction book (1995) -
One good turn deserves another.
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Wouldn't you like to do someone a good turn, when you have the chance?
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I'm not used to people going out of their way to do me a good turn.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
An act of help done without expecting anything back
14
2.1
A small helpful action someone does to make another person's day better
How Helpful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an act of kindness' is directly and compositionally derived from 'good' (beneficial/positive) modifying 'turn' (a favor or action for someone). This combination follows ordinary adjective+noun composition and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun good turn may come from the idea that a 'turn' is an action. Imagine it's your turn and you do something good for someone; that helpful action becomes a 'good turn'. So the phrase means 'an act of kindness'.