Turn in for the night

Posted by Smokey Stover on June 20, 2009 at 03:36

In Reply to: Turn in for the night posted by Victoria S Dennis on June 19, 2009 at 14:26:

: : What is the derivation of "turn in for the night"? i.e go to bed.

: One of the meanings of "turn" is "move in a particular direction". When you turn in for the night, you go, or "turn", *in* to your bed. In the morning, you get, or "turn", *out* of it. (You can also "turn out" the guard in a military emergency - this is a similar usage.) (VSD_

You can also show up well turned out. "Turn" has a whole catalogue of uses, often distinguished by the prepositions that follows it, although multiple meanings with a single preposition is not an unusual case (as with "in" and "out").
SS