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to churn out

to churn out

21 4.0
To make large amounts quickly with little care
  • phrasal verb
  • /tʃɜrn aʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : producir en masa
  • The Asha plan, on the other hand, envisions a large plant capable of churning out 30 cars per day.
  • churn out products

I'm told that he's not incredibly experienced, but they churn out science stories by the dozen.

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Examples

  • Many fast-food restaurants churn out meals quickly to meet high customer demand during lunch hours.

  • With the new software, they can churn out reports in a matter of minutes, regardless of complexity.

  • Thank you," the machine says, churning out two tickets.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • I see him still churning out quite a few novels, some of them pretty good.

  • At the same time, the business, law, and medical schools will continue to churn out trained professionals.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Any artist worth their salt can churn out commissioned jobs.

  • We work with them consistently and they churn out scripts.

  • As a blogger, your first priority should be to churn out regular quality content for your readers.

    Blog text (19)
  • The factory can churn out thousands of toys every day, each one produced in less than an hour.

Synonyms

to turn out
vsto churn out
17 3.5

To produce many things quickly, often using machines

is about quick mass production often without attention to quality
to crank out
vsto churn out
  • Informal
16 4.0

To make many things quickly, often without much care

is the same idea but stresses speed and volume over routine process
to grind out
vsto churn out
  • Informal
2 6.0

Make many things like reports or products in a dull routine way

emphasizes quick mass production rather than slow routine or uninspired process
to bang out
vsto churn out
  • Informal
1 6.6

Make or finish something quickly with little effort

focuses on large quick production rather than casual effortless work

How Fast

to crank out
  • Informal
16 4.0
to churn out
  • Informal
21 4.0
to make
1.0
to handcraft
17 3.7

Surface Forms

churn out infinitive
churned out past participle
churning out present participle
churns out third person singular

Morphology

churn + out

The sense 'produce quickly in large quantities' is a metaphorical extension of 'churn' (to agitate or, historically, to make butter) with 'out' indicating output; the image is of items being forced out of a churning process. Because this meaning relies on a figurative production metaphor and 'churn' is relatively low-frequency, a B1 learner who knows the parts would only partially infer the full sense without prior exposure.

Etymology

Churn out comes from the old butter churn, where people turned the tool again and again to push butter out in large amounts. So, it now means 'to make a lot of something fast', often without much care.