to turn on
133
4.8
- phrasal verb
- /tɜrn ɑn/
:
volverse contra
- You were gonna turn on me, just like the rest of them.
They're incentivizing neighbors to turn on each other for cash.
- They're incentivizing neighbors to turn on each other for cash.
- When John Gotti turned on me, it was over.
- Some forces in American Society really seem intent on having us turn on each other.
- The Spanish and the Gypsies just turned on them.
- I never thought that the Harry Potter, or I mean, I never thought that the people who are great fans of JK Rowling would, would turn on her this much.
- And we get to see how quickly they turn on each other when they're sitting in a dark room with me one-on-one.
- And I think that's really when I lost a lot of the media as like they just turned on me and never came back over, which is fine.
- How is it that people who have empathy, who who love their family, who love their neighbors can suddenly turn on each other, right?
- Junior Persico, he has lifelong friends like Scappy Greg and others that are never going to turn on them.
Examples
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When things aren't going well, people start to turn on you, question your character, question just everything.
-
People we'd been working with, they turned on us.
-
Oh, man, the crowd is turning on her.
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Even your own family turns on you after a while.
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And then they come home and like sports writers turn on them, the public turns on them.
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Well, the crowd turned on her like, how dare you, right?
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So everyone turned on each other and now the country is in ruins.
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I said no, and now she's turning on me.
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And then she accuses her mom and her sister of turning on her, accusing them of witchcraft.
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I never expected my friend to suddenly turn on me after everything we've been through.
Synonyms
8
5.1
To become violent or angry suddenly
1
8.3
To suddenly attack someone with angry words
To suddenly become very angry and behave in a mean way
To suddenly become very angry and act aggressive
Antonyms
How Hostile
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to depend on' is not directly derivable from the literal senses 'turn' (to change) and 'on' (active/powered), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely not predict this sense. There is a loose, somewhat metaphorical link (turn + on/upon → be determined by), but the particle usage is idiomatic and less frequent, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Turn on may come from the image of someone suddenly turning their body or face toward another person and attacking; the quick physical turn became a way to say someone changes from friendly to hostile. That's why this use means 'to suddenly become hostile'.