turn to
verb8 senses
- 1With to as particle
- 2To apply oneself; to focus; to get one's head down.
- 3To become.
- 4To cause (something or someone) to become.
- 5To consult for advice or help.
- 6To start to do or to use something in an attempt to deal…
- 7To direct one's attention or efforts toward something.
- 8Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn, to.
1
With to as particle
› With to as particle:
2
To apply oneself; to focus; to get one's head down.
- All hands, turn to!
- "No; because when I come in from the forge of a night, any one can see me turning to at it. But you never turn to at it, Biddy."1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 269:
› With to as preposition:
3
To become.
- Near-synonyms: (intransitive) get, turn, go, come, fall, grow, wax; (reflexive) make [oneself], make [oneself] into
- all things turn to dust
1 more example
- Iron turns to rust in the presence of air and water.
4
To cause (something or someone) to become.
- Near-synonyms: (transitive) make, make into
- He turned water to wine.
1 more example
- The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
5
To consult for advice or help.
- When I'm in trouble, I turn to my pastor to help me.
6
To start to do or to use something in an attempt to deal with a difficult and unpleasant situation.
- Breakups can be incredibly difficult, but one may wish to seek therapy rather than turn to drugs.
7
To direct one's attention or efforts toward something.
- How do we find constructive ways to respond to a situation this complex? Two groups of essays in the anthology turn to this question.1987 February 22, N. Diffloth, “Violence, by Women, against Women”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 31, page 8:
- In 1939 he turned to films in earnest.
8
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn, to.
- Turn to the left up here.
- To start my homework, I had to turn to page twenty in my textbook.