to turn
- verb
- /tɜrn/
- In the slender seahorse, for example, the male turns orange and the female becomes bright pink.
- turn brown
- turn red
When they ripen, they're going to turn orangish red like this.
- When they ripen, they're going to turn orangish red like this.
Examples
-
The UV rays cause it to turn brown, as you can see here.
-
The paper starts to turn yellow after being exposed to sunlight for too long.
-
It's just starting to turn its fall color.
-
As soon as the top starts to turn a golden brown, it's done.
-
And you can see it quickly turns from white to brown.
-
His hair had turned from black into bright white.
-
The leaves are not turning purple or yellow.
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It looks blue when it's wet, but it turns black when it dries.
-
What had once been a posh neighborhood of fine homes was turning into a seedy area.
Academic text (2013) -
The apples will turn red as they ripen on the tree.
Synonyms
Become very white in the face when you feel shocked, afraid, or sick
To become cloudy and white like milk
To become pale and look sick from shock, fear or illness
Antonyms
Idioms
To change a situation so you get the advantage over someone who had it before
To leave quickly by suddenly walking away because you are angry or shocked
- Informal
To think a dead person is very upset because something goes against what they cared about
Phrasal Verbs
- Informal
Cause a big sudden change that leaves people confused
Move on to the next page or to a new part of your life after a difficult time
To try to make someone change what they do by making them feel more stress
Compounds
A period of years around the start of a new century, about ten years before and after
- US
A flashing light on a vehicle that shows which way the driver will turn or change lanes
- Literature
A very good performance by an actor or entertainer that gets special attention
- Specialized
A unit for magnet strength that one ampere of current produces in one loop of wire
A driving move where the driver pulls the handbrake so the rear wheels slide and the car turns sharply
- Jargon
A skiing turn where you push the tail of one ski out to slow and change direction
How Discolored
Surface Forms
Etymology
Turn for color change uses the same idea of change; when leaves 'turn' red they are simply changing their state, so 'turn' here means to change into a new color.