turret

English

The turret (marked in pink) of a baronial house in Argyll, Scotland

A siege tower

The turret of a South African Olifant Mk 1A main battle tank

Electronic components soldered on a turret board

Etymology

From Middle English touret, from Old French torete (French tourette), diminutive of tour (“tower”), from Latin turris. Doublet of tor, tourelle, and tower. See tower.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: tŭr'ĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈtʌɹ.ɪt/, /ˈtʊɹ.ɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɝ.ɪt/ (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)

  • Audio (non native living in the US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɹɪt

Noun

turret (plural turrets)

1. (architecture) A little tower, frequently a merely ornamental structure at one of the corners of a building or castle.
   • 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, republished in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 1862, OCLC 5091562, pages 7–8:

     There breathes no being but has some pretence / To that fine instinct called poetic sense; […] / The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.

   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:

     Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night,
     Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
     And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
     The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.

2. (historical, military) A siege tower; a movable building, of a square form, consisting of ten or even twenty stories and sometimes one hundred and twenty cubits high, usually moved on wheels, and employed in approaching a fortified place, for carrying soldiers, engines, ladders, casting bridges, and other necessaries.
3. (electronics) A tower-like solder post on a turret board (a circuit board with posts instead of holes).
4. (military) An armoured, rotating gun installation on a fort, ship, aircraft, or armoured fighting vehicle.
5. (rail transport) The elevated central portion of the roof of a passenger car, with sides that are pierced for light and ventilation.

Synonyms

• (military): cupola

Derived terms

• ball turret
• blister turret
• gun turret
• trading turret
• turret board
• turret clock
• turret deck
• turret farm
• turret head
• turret lathe
• turret revolver
• turret ship
• turret spider
• turret steamer

 

Translations

a little tower

• Bulgarian: куличка f (kulička)
• Catalan: torrelló m
• Dutch: hoektoren (nl) m, geschuttoren m, hoektorentje (nl) n, geschuttorentje n
• Esperanto: tureto
• French: tourelle (fr) f
• German: Tourelle f, Türmchen (de) n, Türmlein (de) n
• Hungarian: tornyocska (hu)
• Irish: túirín m
• Italian: torretta (it) f
• Macedonian: ку́личка f (kúlička), торета f (toreta)
• Maori: maihi
• Norman: touothelle f
• Polish: wieżyczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: torreta f
• Russian: ба́шенка (ru) f (bášenka), туре́ль (ru) f (turélʹ)
• Swedish: turell c, torn (sv) n, vakttorn n, utkikstorn n
• Uzbek: bashnya (uz)
• Welsh: tyred m, tŵr bach m

a movable building

• Bulgarian: обсадна кула f (obsadna kula)
• Dutch: belegeringstoren m
• Estonian: piiramistorn
• Russian: осадная башня f (osadnaja bašnja), тура (ru) f (tura)
• Swedish: belägringstorn n

a solder post

a revolving tower constructed of thick iron plates

• Bulgarian: оръдейна кула f (orǎdejna kula)
• Catalan: torreta (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 炮塔 (zh) (pào tǎ)

• Dutch: geschutskoepel (nl) m, pantserkoepel m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: tykkitorni (fi)
• German: Turm (de) m
• Hungarian: torony (hu), lövegtorony (hu)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: wieżyczka (pl) f
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ба́шенка (ru) f (bášenka)
• Serbo-Croatian: kupola (sh) f
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: torreta (es) f
• Swedish: kanontorn (sv) n
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

the elevated central portion of the roof of a passenger car

Anagrams

• Rutter, rutter