How to use churn in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Churn means to agitate rapidly and repetitively, or to stir with a rowing or rocking motion; generally applies to liquids, notably cream. Example: “Now the cream is churned to make butter.”

Examples of churn by meaning

verbTo agitate rapidly and repetitively, or to stir with a rowing or rocking motion; generally applies to liquids, notably...

Now the cream is churned to make butter.
no-churn ice cream

verbTo produce excessive and sometimes undesirable or unproductive activity or motion.

The slope of the terrain, shaped like a funnel, squeezed the growing swell of churning snow into a steep, twisting gorge.2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times

verbTo move rapidly and repetitively with a rocking motion; to tumble, mix or shake.

I was so nervous that my stomach was churning.

verbTo stop using a company's product or service.

Subscriptions can be ended or canceled, which is known as churn.2020, Carl S. Gold, Fighting Churn with Data, page 5

nounA vessel used for churning, especially for producing butter.

a butter churn

nounA milk churn (container for the transportation of milk).

In the old days, milk trains consisted entirely of vans loaded with ten-gallon churns.1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155

nounCyclic activity that achieves nothing.

There will also be a huge churn of players after the lavish, unrewarding outlay this season.2023 April 18, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea Champions League exit: Where do 'disjointed, broken' Blues go from here?”, in BBC Sport

More sentences with churn

Barbara Cartland was renowned for her ability to churn out romantic novels.From the entry churn out
In those days, printing was big business in this city. Giant web-fed presses churned out countless tons of printed matter annually.From the entry printing
Some writers chasing money churn out novels willy-nilly.From the entry willy-nilly
Just the footfall will churn up the wet turf.From the entry churn up
For dessert, I churned up some vanilla ice cream.From the entry churn up
In the process of making whey butter,..the ‘thrustings’, or white whey, is set in ‘cream mugs’, to ‘carve’, and acidulate for churning.From the entry thrusting
But such stories continue to be churned out with no end in sight.2023 February 21, Chandran Nair, “Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media”, in The Diplomat, archived from the original on…. From the entry off the charts
The General stares into the sandstorm churned up by all that movement.2017, Nathan Englander, “2014, Limbo”, in Dinner at the Centre of the Earth, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN. From the entry tawny
Charles Darwin once described his own brain as a machine for churning out hypotheses.2015, Steve Silberman, chapter 1, in Megan Newman, editor, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, New York…. From the entry rhapsodic
And unlike football's 44, lacrosse's 22 is still in circulation and still churning out All-Americans.2014, Scott Pitoniak, “The Legend of 22”, in 100 Things Syracuse Fans should Know & Do before They Die, Chicago, Ill.: Triumph Books…. From the entry All-American
Churn for postpay accounts was 2.05 percent, down from 2.25 percent.2009 July 30, Saul Hansell, “Sprint Nextel Loss Widens as Subscribers Decline”, in New York Times. From the entry postpay
The corporation he will someday inherit—growing, churning—won't work as a one-man band.2007 December 9, Peter Preston, “Challenges for the rising son”, in The Observer, UK. From the entry one-man band
He churned the emptiness of my stomach, and stirred the fury of my famishment.1991, Ben Okri, The Famished Road, New York: Nan A. Talese, published 1992, Section 1, Book 5, Chapter 2, p. 329. From the entry famishment
"Ah, Shrimp Boat," I exclaimed, "what a fine name for sounds so churning and drifty!"1988 November 18, Renaldo Migaldi, “Shrimp Boat”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry drifty
A dumbledore, lured from the plantation, lies on its back, leaping and churning upon Seth’s bright pages.1987, Seán Virgo, Selakhi, Exile Editions, Ltd., page 20. From the entry dumbledore
Trapped material eventually expands inside the soil body causing distortion, convulsion, and churning of the mass (turbation).1980, Hans Jenny, “Swelling, Shrinking, and their Turbations”, in The Soil Resource: Origin and Behavior, page 157. From the entry turbation
While she was heating and churning the hellbrew in a double boiler, her sight began to fade.1980, Alfred Bester, Golem¹⁰⁰, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 147. From the entry hellbrew
Behind us churns the Yellow River, looking viscous with its load of ocher silt.1980 March, Rick Gore, “Journey to China's Far West”, in National Geographic Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 310, column 1. From the entry Shapotou
Much of it is just roughly churned rock, much is flat and drab.1927, Louise Jordan Miln, In a Yün-nan Courtyard, Frederick A. Stokes Company, page 914. From the entry Yün-nan
Then it shallowed to two and the oars churned up seafire all about us.1919 06, “Boys' Life”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 54. From the entry seafire
The day of bucketry has dawned again, and buckets, churns, piggins, tubs were exhibited.1902, Drawing and Manual Training Journal, volumes 1-2, page 124. From the entry bucketry
Rajamouli’s phenomenally successful Raj-era Indian action epic that, for sheer boffo exuberance, outdid anything the studios churned out this year.2022 December 22, Peter Rainer, “Beyond the blockbusters: The 10 best films of 2022”, in The Christian Science Monitor. From the entry boffo
He was on his knees, kissing my feet and legs until I was in a state of churning lust.2021 July 28, Diana Elmore, Footprints in Time: Memoirs of Previous Lifetimes, Dorrance Publishing, →ISBN, page 83. From the entry posh
Craftsmen churned out cheap helmets – lobster pots with hammered steel neckguards rather than the fancy segmented type the Roundheads wore.2018, Nicholas Carter, Black Tom's Red Army, Canelo, →ISBN. From the entry lobster pot
They oversee groups that are churning out position papers on counterterrorism, cybersecurity, democracy and human rights, and global development.2016 August 26, Mark Landler, “Clinton and Trump Campaigns Are Buzzing About the Race . . . for the Cabinet”, in New York Times, retrieved…. From the entry position paper
No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848. From the entry recipe
Quickly he turned back, his shoes digging in, churning up the sand as he scurried along the beach.2013, Thomas W. Dawson, The Mystery of the Old Gold Mine, page 208. From the entry ooff
Salubricious musings with mirthless guilt his soul churned to a woodpecker's rat-a-tat “on a distant tree at sundown.2013, Ann Laura Stoler, Imperial Debris: On Ruins and Ruination - Page 92. From the entry blitheless
After a few minutes, we executed a right face and churned a new path directly toward the woods.2013, Jim Ross, Outside the Wire: Riding with the "Triple Deuce" in Vietnam, 1970, Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 94. From the entry right face
He churned the milk as it soured and clabbered.2010, Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, Vintage Books, page 82. From the entry clabbered
Yet recording companies, especially classical ones, continue to churn out CDs, and not just single discs but multidisc boxed sets.2009 March 15, Anthony Tommasini, “Do You Have Philip Glass in a Box?”, in New York Times. From the entry multidisc
But don’t use an electric motor to churn it.1989, Paul Brynteson, In Search of Total Health, Eddie Bowers Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 133. From the entry ice-cream maker

Meaning of churn

verb To agitate rapidly and repetitively, or to stir with a rowing or rocking motion; generally applies to liquids, notably cream.
verb To produce excessive and sometimes undesirable or unproductive activity or motion.
verb To move rapidly and repetitively with a rocking motion; to tumble, mix or shake.

Full definition of churn

Questions about churn in a sentence

How do you use churn in a sentence?: Churn is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Now the cream is churned to make butter.”
What is a short sentence with churn?: “a butter churn”
What does churn mean?: Churn means to agitate rapidly and repetitively, or to stir with a rowing or rocking motion; generally applies to liquids, notably cream.

Adapted from Wiktionary: churn (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use churn in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/churn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.