turnout

plural turnouts · alternative turn-out

1. countableuncountableThe act of coming forth.
2. countableuncountableThe number or proportion of people who attend or participate in an event (especially an election) or are present at a venue.First known use early 19th c.

   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

   1 more example

   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. UScountableuncountableA place to pull off a road.

   When towing a trailer, use the turnouts to let faster traffic pass.

   1 more example

   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. UScountableuncountablerail transportA place where moveable rails allow a train to switch tracks; a set of points.

   [...] the Welwyn bottleneck will be relaid with high-speed turnouts and resignalled for reversible working.

   1960 June, “Talking of Trains: Sunday on the G.N. line”, in Trains Illustrated, page 322

   3 more examples

   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

   When the engineer of Extra 3119 West reported that he was in trouble, the VAN train was about 4 1/2 minutes from the east turnout of Dawes passing track and about 4 miles ahead of Extra 3119 West. The dispatcher probably could have averted the accident by immediately acting to align the turnout at Dawes to the passing track and instructing the VAN train engineer to slow down sufficiently to allow for the time it would take for the CTC command to be executed.

   1981 August 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “Role of Dispatcher”, in Railroad Accident Report: Rear-End Collision of Union Pacific Railroad Company Freight Trains Extra 3119 West and Extra 8044 West, Near Kelso, California, November 17, 1980, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2022, page 30

5. countabledateduncountableA quitting of employment for the purpose of forcing increase of wages; a strike.
6. countabledateduncountableA striker.

   1 more example

   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 constables.

   2002, Brian Lewis, The Middlemost and the Milltowns, page 86

7. countableuncountableThat 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.

   2 more examples

   "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

   Occasionally turnouts would be seen driven randem in circus parades.

   1990, Thomas Ryder, The Carriage Journal, volume 27, number 4, pages 164–165

8. countableuncountableNet quantity of produce yielded.
9. countableuncountableThe act of putting out to pasture.

   Duties include feeding and turnout of horses.

10. countableuncountableballetRotation of the leg at the hips which causes the feet and knees to turn outward, away from the front of the body.