churn Hear it!

churn Definition

churn (c̸hʉrn)

noun

  1. a container or contrivance in which milk or cream is beaten, stirred, or shaken to form butter
  2. ☆ the occurrence, ratio, or amount of turnover of investments, customers, commodities, etc.

Etymology: ME chirne < OE cyrne; akin to cyrnel, kernel: with ref. to grainy appearance of churned cream

transitive verb

  1. to stir, beat, or shake (milk or cream) in a churn
  2. to make (butter) in a churn
  3. to stir up vigorously
  4. to produce (foam, etc.) by stirring vigorously
  5. ☆ to cause a rapid turnover of (a client's investments) so that the broker can claim commissions

Etymology: ME chirnen < the n.

intransitive verb

  1. to use a churn in making butter
  2. to move or stir as if in a churn many ideas churning in his brain

churn Idioms

churn out

to produce regularly and copiously, esp. in a mechanical or uncreative way

churn Synonyms

churn

v.

stir, beat, agitate, shake, paddle, seethe, ferment; see also boil 2, mix 1.

churn Finance Definition

The rate of subscriber or customer turnover. If a company has a high rate of churn, it means the company may attract a large number of customers but will typically lose them at a rapid rate. The churn rate measures the number of customers that discontinue service in a typical month, and often is expressed as a percentage of a company’s average subscriber base for the time period. The term often is used in conjunction with subscribers to wireless telephone companies.

churn Usage Examples

Object

  • butter: Those who are unfamiliar with butter were churning the butter.
  • stomach: The prose is rich in sickening and sexy concepts, churning the stomach while stirring the gonads.
  • cream: How butter is made Butter is obtained by churning cream.
  • rate: In addition, reduced doorstep selling in the industry appears to be leading to lower churn rates.
  • stuff: But I'm not so certain that sticking around, and churning stuff out matters that much.
  • sea: In the winter months storms and strong winds churn the sea and mix deep cold water with warmer surface water.

Modifying Another Word

  • constantly: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Some delightful stuff from Sweden Sweden seems to be constantly churning out talented songwriters.
  • away: All gets a bit slow, waiting for peer review to churn away.
  • still: However, Des was still churning out the memories.

Followed by an intransitive particle

  • out: Success is the churning out of small answers to small problems on a colossal scale.
  • around: If you keep your feelings to yourself; they'll probably just churn around inside you and you'll end up feeling worse.
  • up: That Joan enjoyed her cake ' despite all the feelings churning up inside her ' is omitted.
  • over: You are just on an amazing high and you feel like your stomach has been churned over and over.

Followed by a transitive particle

up: Our storm has left us with winds churning up high swells.

Particle object:

  • rubbish: From opposing the war to churning out rubbish on celebrities, worth a check on anti-war coverage.
  • thousand: It is that Parliament is churning out thousands of pages of new law every year, supplemented by thousands more of statutory instruments.
  • movie: The time is long overdue for the industry to shift gears and start churning out movies that help enhance tolerance and unify people.

Particle object:

mud: We rode along the Westonbirt rides churning up the mud.

Noun used with modifier

  • milk: On the story goes, in came milking machines, smaller milk churns.
  • butter: Firstly there are butter churns which are fixed m/c's making butter by hand rotation or machine.