churn

present singular third person churns · participle present churning · participle past churned · past churned

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

   no-churn ice cream

   2 more examples

   Now the cream is churned to make butter.

   Churned in his teeth, the foamy venom rose.

   1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses

2. figurativelytransitiveTo 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

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

   I was so nervous that my stomach was churning.

   Synonyms: heave

4. businessTo stop using a company's product or service.

   Subscriptions can be ended or canceled, which is known as churn. If there are no subscriptions, a customer churns when they stop using the product.

   2020, Carl S. Gold, Fighting Churn with Data, page 5

5. informalaeronauticsTo repeatedly cancel and rebook a reservation in order to refresh ticket time limits or other fare rule restrictions.
6. USinformalbusinessTo continually sign up for new credit cards in order to earn signup bonuses, airline miles, and other benefits.
7. businessTo carry out wash sales in order to make the market appear more active than it really is.
8. InternetTo digest.

plural churns

1. countableuncountableA vessel used for churning, especially for producing butter.

   a butter churn

   1 more example

   We notice by our exchanges that great efforts are being made throughout the western States especially, to palm off upon the farming public various kinds of patent churns, or to induce many mechanics to give large sums for the Right to manufacture the same—while in a majority of cases, we believe, the articles are absolutely worthless, or inferior to older kinds that might be procured for less money. We have repeatedly cautioned our readers against purchasing these new fangled churns until after they have been more fully tested; and we are happy to know that our remarks have saved not a few of our friends from imposition. To set this matter in a clearer light before our readers, we will glance at a few of the different churns, now most prominently before the public—some valuable, some useless.

   1849 January 15, “A Glance at Patent Churns”, in Ohio Cultivator: Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture and Domestic Economy, volume 5, number 2, page 17

2. countableuncountableA milk churn (container for the transportation of milk).

   As the ends of the up and down platforms are not opposite each other, it is not possible to provide the ordinary type of barrow crossing, and the full churns were too heavy to be man-handled up and down the stairs of the footbridge.

   1951 October, “The Why and the Wherefore: Milk Platform at Beccles”, in Railway Magazine, page 717

   1 more example

   In the old days, milk trains consisted entirely of vans loaded with ten-gallon churns. When filled, these churns weigh 130 lb. each and their manipulation is an art. [...] Like the tank wagons, the churns are dairy property, but farmers often have other ideas, and find their own uses for them—it has not been unknown for dairy inspectors to find missing churns tucked away in an unsuspected corner of a farmhouse, filled to the brim with banknotes!

   1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155

3. uncountablebusinessCustomer attrition; the phenomenon or rate of customers leaving a company.
4. countableuncountablecommunicationsThe time when a consumer switches his/her service provider.
5. countableuncountablecommunicationsThe mass of people who are ready to switch carriers.
6. countableuncountableCyclic activity that achieves nothing.

   Getting the right manager has just been made more difficult by not having Champions League to offer. 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

   1 more example

   I wished my brain would shut up and knew that soon I'd have to start tidying, but first I needed to rest, so I tried to quell the pointless churn behind my eyes and kept on trying (in a minute) until Vicky came back home.

   2007, Hari Kunzru, My Revolutions, page 102

7. countablehistoricaluncountableThe last grain cut at harvest; kern.