turret

English

The turret (marked in pink) of a baronial house in Argyll, Scotland

A siege tower

The turret of a South African Olifant Mk 1A main battle tank

Electronic components soldered on a turret board

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English touret, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French torete (French tourette), diminutive of tour (“tower”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin turris. See tower.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tŭr'ət, IPA^(key): /ˈtʌɹət/
• Rhymes: -ʌɹət

Noun

turret (plural turrets)

1. (architecture) A little tower, frequently a merely ornamental structure at one of the corners of a building or castle.
   • 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, republished in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 1862, OCLC 5091562, pages 7–8:

     There breathes no being but has some pretence / To that fine instinct called poetic sense; […] / The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.

2. (historical, military) A siege tower; a movable building, of a square form, consisting of ten or even twenty stories and sometimes one hundred and twenty cubits high, usually moved on wheels, and employed in approaching a fortified place, for carrying soldiers, engines, ladders, casting bridges, and other necessaries.
3. (electronics) A tower-like solder post on a turret board (a circuit board with posts instead of holes).
4. (military) An armoured, rotating gun installation on a fort, ship, aircraft, or armoured fighting vehicle.
5. (rail transport) The elevated central portion of the roof of a passenger car, with sides that are pierced for light and ventilation.

Synonyms

• (military): cupola

Derived terms

• turret board
• turret clock
• turret head
• turret lathe
• turret ship

 

Translations

a little tower

• Catalan: torrelló m
• Dutch: hoektoren m, geschuttoren m, hoektorentje n, geschuttorentje n
• Esperanto: tureto
• French: tourelle (fr) f
• German: Tourelle f, Türmchen (de) n, Türmlein (de) n
• Irish: túirín m
• Italian: torretta (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: maihi
• Norman: touothelle f
• Polish: wieżyczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: torreta f
• Russian: ба́шенка (ru) f (bášenka), туре́ль (ru) f (turélʹ)
• Swedish: turell c, torn (sv) n, vakttorn n, utkikstorn n
• Welsh: tyred m, tŵr bach m

a movable building

• Dutch: belegeringstoren m
• Russian: осадная башня f (osadnaja bašnja), тура (ru) f (tura)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: belägringstorn n

a solder post

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

a revolving tower constructed of thick iron plates

• Catalan: torreta (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 炮塔 (zh) (pào tǎ)

• Dutch: geschutskoepel m, pantserkoepel m
• Finnish: tykkitorni (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Turm (de) m
• Polish: wieżyczka (pl) f
• Russian: ба́шенка (ru) f (bášenka)
• Spanish: torreta f
• Swedish: kanontorn n

the elevated central portion of the roof of a passenger car

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• Rutter, rutter