Dictionary

turn-up en · NOUN

Etymology

Deverbal from turn up.

Meanings

1. Fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers to make them shorter.
   • Why does all this fluff accumulate in the turn-ups?
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 hot metal and marking myself by sich means, and what with having turn-ups with the tinker as I got older, almost whenever he was too far gone in drink—which was almost always—my beauty was queer, wery queer, even at that time. 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.
   • I thought ‘now here's a turn up’, for I was not to know I would be invited to drinks every day for the next three years. 2001 December 9, Andrew Martin, “We like drinking too much, so why do we do it so badly?”, in The Observer:
   • 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

Synonyms

trouser cuff · cuff

Translations (6)

el ρεβέρ (fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers) · bg маншет (fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers) · ca gira (fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers) · pl podwinięty rękaw (fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers) · fi housunkäänne (fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers) · pt bainha (fabric turned up at the bottom of trousers)