turn to

turn to (third-person singular simple present turns to, present participle turning to, simple past and past participle turned to)

1. With to as particle:
   1. (intransitive) To apply oneself; to focus; to get one's head down.

      All hands, turn to!

      • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 269:

        "No; because when I come in from the forge of a night, any one can see me turning to at it. But you never turn to at it, Biddy."

2. With to as preposition:
   1. (said of objects, intransitive, transitive) To become; to turn into.

      all things turn to dust; iron turns to rust in the presence of air and water

      He turned water to wine.

      • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

        The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

   2. To consult for advice or help.

      Synonym: run to

      When I'm in trouble, I turn to my pastor to help me.

   3. To start to do or to use something in an attempt to deal with a difficult and unpleasant situation.

      Breakups can be incredibly difficult, but one may wish to seek therapy rather than turn to drugs.

   4. To direct one's attention or efforts toward something.

      In 1939 he turned to films in earnest.

   5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn,‎ to.

      Turn to the left up here.

      To start my homework, I had to turn to page twenty in my textbook.

• Turton