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TURN TO
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Direct one's interest or attention towards; go into
Example:
People turn to mysticism at the turn of a millennium
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Sense 2
Meaning:
Speak to
Example:
He addressed the crowd outside the window
Synonyms:
address; turn to
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "turn to" is one way to...):
communicate; intercommunicate (transmit thoughts or feelings)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "turn to"):
address; call (greet, as with a prescribed form, title, or name)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Context examples:
It was very essential that I should impress Mrs. Hudson with the reality of my condition, since she was to convey it to you, and you in turn to him.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A bright morning so early in the year, she allowed, would generally turn to rain, but a cloudy one foretold improvement as the day advanced.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I have no one to turn to—none, save only one, who cares for me, and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was her turn to be puzzled. "What do you mean?" she asked.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Then his eyes would turn to Jo so wistfully that she would have surely answered the mute inquiry if she had seen it.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Activity of this complex is regulated by multiple different cell surface receptor signaling systems, activating WASP, and Arp2/3 in turn to cause changes in cell shape and cell motility.
(Actin Branching Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)
This means people affected by snake bites turn to poor-quality, cheaper anti-venoms.
(Snakebite resolution set for Health Assembly approval, SciDev.Net)
It was my turn to jump out of my chair.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To understand the complex molecular mechanisms of genome function, researchers often turn to model organisms.
(Expanding Our Understanding of Genomics, NIH)
It is over, and the earth is filled in, and we turn to come away.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
