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
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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
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
The effect is both piquantly engaging and dishearteningly synthetic, like a well-turned sound effect—one simulating the thud of a screenplay dropped on a desk.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 8, 2019
The members listened with surprise to the old well-turned sentences, the old masterly style; felt again the charm of the old ingenuous manner.
From What a Man Wills by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
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.
