Word.ws English Dictionary

turnup

turnup is the alternative form of turn-up.

Meaning of turn-up

Noun

turn-up (plural turn-ups)

  1. Fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers to make them shorter.
    • Why does all this fluff accumulate in the turn-ups?
    Synonyms:
    cuff, trouser cuff
  2. (dated) A fight or disturbance.
    • I was passable enough when I went with the tinker, though nothing to boast of then; but what with blowing the fire with my mouth when I was young, and spileing my complexion, and singeing my hair off, and swallering the smoke, and what with being nat’rally unfort’nate in the way of running against...1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 26, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
  3. The next card taken from the top of a pack of cards and displayed.
    • I'll bet $10 that the next turn-up is an ace.
  4. (figuratively) A stroke of good luck; something that appears unexpectedly; especially in turn up for the book.
    • Despondent settled down favourite, but ran badly, and the fielders had a fine turn up by the success of Carlton Spring, on whom Allsopp jumped off in front and stayed there.1896, Henry Smurthwaite, Racing Illustrated, volume 3, page 236
  5. (historical) A book, intended for children, with flaps that can be lifted to reveal underlying text or images.
    • Books with flaps which lifted up and down and known as "turn-ups" came about in 1795 and were listed in Laurie and Whittle's catalogue.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 138

Forms of turnup

pluralturnups

Origin of turnup

Deverbal from turn up.

Questions about turnup

What is turnup the alternative form of?
Turnup is the alternative form of turn-up.

Words near turnup in the dictionary

  1. turntails
  2. turntippet
  3. turntippets
  4. Turnu Măgurele
  5. Turnu Ruieni
  6. turnup
  7. turnups
  8. turnus
  9. turnuses
  10. turnverein
  11. turnvereins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turnup (page history and authors); turn-up (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: “turnup.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turnup. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.