turn to

turn to (third-person singular simple present turns to, present participle turning to, simple past and past participle turned to)

1. With to as particle:
   1. (intransitive) To apply oneself; to focus; to get one's head down.

      All hands, turn to!

      • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 269:

        "No; because when I come in from the forge of a night, any one can see me turning to at it. But you never turn to at it, Biddy."

2. With to as preposition:
   1. (said of objects, intransitive, transitive) To become; to turn into.

      all things turn to dust; iron turns to rust in the presence of air and water

      He turned water to wine.

      • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

        The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

   2. To consult for advice or help.

      Synonym: run to

      When I'm in trouble, I turn to my pastor to help me.

   3. To start to do or to use something in an attempt to deal with a difficult and unpleasant situation.

      Breakups can be incredibly difficult, but one may wish to seek therapy rather than turn to drugs.

   4. To direct one's attention or efforts toward something.
      • 1987 February 22, N. Diffloth, “Violence, by Women, against Women”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 31, page 8:

        How do we find constructive ways to respond to a situation this complex? Two groups of essays in the anthology turn to this question.

      In 1939 he turned to films in earnest.

   5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn,‎ to.

      Turn to the left up here.

      To start my homework, I had to turn to page twenty in my textbook.

• Turton