turn into
verbEtymology turn + into
1
To become.
- Near-synonyms: (intransitive) get, turn, go, come, fall, grow, wax; (reflexive) make [oneself], make [oneself] into
- all things turn into dust
1 more example
- Iron turns into rust in the presence of air and water.
2
To cause (something or someone) to become.
- Near-synonyms: (transitive) make, make into
- He turned water into wine.
2 more examples
- "I am the nursery magic Fairy," she said. "I take care of all the playthings that the children have loved. When they are old and worn out and the children don't need them any more, then I come and take them away with me and turn them into Real."1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
3
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn, into.
- I was just turning into my driveway when I got your call.
- Derived terms
- you can't turn a hoe into a housewife
- Related terms
- turn, turn in, turn into a pumpkin