turnout

Noun

turnout (countable and uncountable, plural turnouts)

1. The act of coming forth.
2. The number or proportion of people who attend or participate in an event (especially an election) or are present at a venue.
   • Depending on the location of a restaurant, weekdays may equally experience low turnout.2012, The Hyperink Team, Essential Tools For Managing A Restaurant Business, Hyperink Inc, →ISBN
   • A country which has always had an exceptionally good turnout for its elections to the European Parliament is Belgium. Every single election has had a turnout of over 90 per cent. The reason for this is that there is compulsory voting in Belgium.2016, Alistair Jones, Britain and the European Union, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 212
3. (US) A place to pull off a road.
   • When towing a trailer, use the turnouts to let faster traffic pass.
   • This is a location that should not be missed, especially during late afternoons in winter. This field can be photographed from the narrow driveway that leads down to the restaurant or from the turnout south of the restaurant, ...2011, Douglas Steakley, Photographing Big Sur: Where to Find Perfect Shots and How to Take Them, The Countryman Press, →ISBN, page 56

   Synonyms:

   lay-by

4. (US) A place where moveable rails allow a train to switch tracks; a set of points.
   • An article published recently in our associated weekly contemporary, The Railway Gazette, dealt at some length with the differences in construction and operation between civil and military railways, and explained that points and crossings are more commonly termed "turnouts" in military parlance.1943 September and October, “Military and Civil Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 257
   • Crossing stations on single lines are laid out so that one line has a straight run through, and is signalled in each direction, avoiding the need to slow down to take the turnout into the loop.1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 562
5. (dated) A quitting of employment for the purpose of forcing increase of wages; a strike.
6. (dated) A striker.
   • Meanwhile on the eighteenth a party of soldiers dispersed a crowd in Over Darwen, and the following day a detachment came to protect the Hargreaves' large mill at Accrington, where one of the partners, anticipating a visit from the turnouts, had sworn in several hundred of the workpeople as special...2002, Brian Lewis, The Middlemost and the Milltowns, page 86
7. That which is prominently brought forward or exhibited; hence, an equipage.
   • A man with a showy carriage and horses is said to have a fine turnout.
   • "Yes," answered Reynard, "but old Bruin sat on the sledge and drove just as if he had stolen both horse and turn-out." "Bad luck to him, the rascal!" said the farmer.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 113
8. Net quantity of produce yielded.
9. The act of putting out to pasture.
   • Duties include feeding and turnout of horses.
10. (ballet) Rotation of the leg at the hips which causes the feet and knees to turn outward, away from the front of the body.