well-turned
Americanadjective
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gracefully shaped.
a well-turned ankle.
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gracefully and concisely expressed.
a well-turned phrase.
adjective
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(of a phrase, speech, etc) apt and pleasingly sonorous
-
having a pleasing shape
a well-turned leg
Etymology
Origin of well-turned
First recorded in 1610–20
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“She enjoyed producing a well-turned meal,” Metcalfe posits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025
"For his part, Depp delivers his lines in well-turned French, wearing fine powder and a stiff white wig, and yet he seems strangely uncomfortable in the role - adequate but not especially engaged," he added.
From BBC ● May 17, 2023
There’s something heartening about audiences in shorts and T-shirts leaping to their feet in a concert hall to cheer well-turned showpieces by Ravel, Barber and Jacques Ibert.
From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2022
Too disappointed by her husband’s self-deceptions and their ruinous consequences to miss him, Krystal quickly moves on, finding a new love interest she’s sure she can control with a well-turned eyebrow raise.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2019
In "the splendid foppery of a well-turned period" Gibbon thus pictures the dons of Magdalen in 1752: "Their deep and dull potations excused the brisk intemperance of youth."
From An American at Oxford by John Corbin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
