noun
turnover
The act of upsetting something so that it falls or flips
Where it comes from
Turnover was formed in English from the verbal phrase turn over. The pastry sense is recorded from the late eighteenth century and names the method: one half of a crust is turned over the filling and onto the other half.
How the meaning developed
The same plain motion generated a surprisingly wide family. What is turned over may be a folded pastry, goods sold and replaced, employees leaving and being replaced, living cells lost and renewed, or possession of a ball transferred to the other team.
Sources
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-09-30. Report a correction.