Word.ws English Dictionary

turnkeys

turnkeys is the plural of turnkey.

turnkeys is the third-person singular simple present indicative of turnkey.

Meaning of turnkey

Noun

turnkey (plural turnkeys)

  1. A system that is supplied ready to switch on and operate.
    • The hardware-software costs are packaged together. Turnkeys are either special purpose (e.g., only for one function such as libraries) or general purpose […]1982, Myron E. Weiner, Human Services Management: Analysis and Applications, page 298
  2. (dated) A warder or jailer; a keeper of the keys in a prison.
    • He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man / With but little expedition, / Which put him in mind of the long debate / On the Slave-trade abolition.1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 86
    Synonyms:
    dub-cove

See all 4 meanings of turnkey

Questions about turnkeys

What is turnkeys the plural of?
Turnkeys is the plural of turnkey.

Words near turnkeys in the dictionary

  1. turnipy
  2. turnkey
  3. turnkey tyranny
  4. turnkeyed
  5. turnkeying
  6. turnkeys
  7. Turnmire
  8. Turnmires
  9. Turnock
  10. turnoff
  11. turnoffs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turnkeys (page history and authors); turnkey (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “turnkeys.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turnkeys. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.