churn

UK/tʃɜːn/US/t͡ʃɝn/

verbC16 meanings Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,926 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: churning, churned, churns

To churn is to stir something so hard that it moves in violent circles. The sea churning against the harbour wall, mud churned up by tractor tyres, your stomach churning before an exam.

The old sense is the machine: cream was churned in a wooden churn until it turned to butter, and a milk churn is the tall metal can that stood at the farm gate. Churn out is the phrasal verb everyone uses, meaning to produce a lot of something fast and without much care — he churns out three books a year. Business took the noun for the rate at which customers leave and new ones arrive: customer churn, staff churn. Nothing about churn is gentle. If you stir your tea, you stir it.

Definitions of churn

1verbchurnTo stir or move something violently in circles.C1~2%
“The propellers churned the brown water behind the boat.”
synonyms: agitate, swirl, stir
2verbstomach(of your stomach) to feel sick with nerves.C1~2%
“My stomach churned every time the phone rang.”
3verbuntilTo stir cream or milk until it becomes butter.C1~16%
“She churned the cream by hand and her arm ached for a day.”
4nouncontainerA container in which cream is turned into butter, or a tall can for milk.C1~62%
“An old churn stood by the gate, full of rainwater.”
5nounrateThe rate at which customers or staff leave and are replaced.C2~16%
“The company cut its churn by answering the phone faster.”
6verbproduceTo produce a lot of something quickly and carelessly.C1~2%
“The studio churns out the same film every summer.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 6 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

The churn came first: Old English ċyrn was the wooden vessel, from Proto-Germanic *kirnijǭ, and the verb ċernan meant to work that vessel. Past that point nobody knows where the word came from. Its relatives sit all across the north — Dutch karn, Danish kærne, Swedish kärna, Icelandic kirna.

Proto-Germanic
*kirnijǭ — churn
Old English
ċyrn
Middle English
chyrne
English, today
churn

Built from

ċirin · Old English — churn

Noun from Middle English chyrne, cherne, kyrne (> Scots kirn), from Old English ċyrn, ċyrin, ċirin (“churn”), from Proto-Germanic kirnijǭ (“churn”); verb from Middle English chyrnen from Old English ċernan, from Proto-Germanic kirnijaną (“to churn, stir”), of unknown origin. Cognate with West Frisian tsjerne, Dutch karn, wa serene, German Karn, Kirne, Norwegian Bokmål kjerne, Danish kærne, Swedish kärna, Icelandic kirna.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs, Farm & Countryside, Marketing & Advertising

Practise this word

churn in the wild

A butter churn is a device used to convert cream into butter, a process known as churning.
Butter churn
Churning is the process of shaking up cream or whole milk to make butter, usually using a device called butter churn.
Churning (butter)
In Europe from the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolution, a churn was usually as simple as a barrel with a plunger in it, moved by hand.
Churning (butter)
Traditional tools included the butter churn and Scotch hands.
Creamery
Companies usually make a distinction between voluntary churn and involuntary churn.
Customer attrition

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Definitions of churn

1verbchurnTo stir or move something violently in circles.C1~2%

“The propellers churned the brown water behind the boat.”

synonyms: agitate, swirl, stir

2verbstomach(of your stomach) to feel sick with nerves.C1~2%

“My stomach churned every time the phone rang.”

3verbuntilTo stir cream or milk until it becomes butter.C1~16%

“She churned the cream by hand and her arm ached for a day.”

4nouncontainerA container in which cream is turned into butter, or a tall can for milk.C1~62%

“An old churn stood by the gate, full of rainwater.”

5nounrateThe rate at which customers or staff leave and are replaced.C2~16%

“The company cut its churn by answering the phone faster.”

6verbproduceTo produce a lot of something quickly and carelessly.C1~2%

“The studio churns out the same film every summer.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 6 sentences found in the wild and placed 6 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.