To turn into something is to change and become something different. The caterpillar and the butterfly.
It is the everyday phrase for transformation of every kind, physical and figurative, so water turns into ice and a discussion turns into an argument. It always takes a direct object after into. The reflexive version works too, since somebody can turn into their mother. Fairy tales rely on the phrase entirely, and turning into a pumpkin at midnight is a joke about leaving a party early.
1phraseturn intoTo change and become something else.
“A quiet chat can turn into a real row.”
turn + into
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Phrasal Verbs, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.
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