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Glite Dictionary
💡 To start a device 🔥 To excite 😠 To become hostile 🎭 To display ability 🔗 To depend on 🌈 To get high
to turn on

to turn on

8 9.8
To take drugs so you feel high
  • phrasal verb
  • /tɜrn ɑn/
  • NSFW
translation icon : colocarse
  • Last weekend, we decided to turn on and enjoy the music festival together.

Examples

  • What does it tell us when kids cannot wait to leave school in order to turn on, reboot, and engage in meaningful (to them) real-world learning?

    Academic text (2009)

  • At the party, many of the guests started to turn on, enjoying the atmosphere and the vibe.

  • Someone had come in while I was asleep and turned on the small lamp by the rocking chair.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • There are those like Tim Leary who are popularizers who want everyone to turn on.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • After taking the drug, he quickly turned on and felt a surge of euphoria.

Synonyms

to get high
vsto turn on
  • NSFW
112 9.3

Feel very happy and different after taking drugs or alcohol

applies to becoming under drugs specifically, not alcohol
to trip
vsto turn on
  • NSFW
103 9.5

To see things that are not real after taking drugs

covers general drug influence, not only hallucination-producing substances
to get off
vsto turn on
  • NSFW
24 9.9

To become high from using drugs

means becoming under drug influence in informal slang
to trip out
vsto turn on
  • NSFW
3 9.8

Feel strange and see or hear things after taking drugs

describes general drug influence rather than intense altered states

Antonyms

to sober up
33 4.6

To stop being drunk and feel normal again

How Intoxicated

to black out
46 5.4
to trip
  • NSFW
103 9.5
stoned
  • NSFW
7 8.8
to turn on
  • NSFW
8 9.8
to get high
  • NSFW
112 9.3

Surface Forms

turn on infinitive
turned on past
turned on past participle
turning on present participle
turns on third person singular

Morphology

turn + on

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 became slang in the 1960s from the idea of switching your mind into a different state, like a light being switched on, when you take a drug. That's why it was used to mean 'to get high' or start feeling the drug effect.