turnkey
(ˈtɜːnkiː)
[f. turn v. + key n.]
1. One who has charge of the keys of a prison; a jailer, esp. a subordinate; also transf.
| 1654 H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 106 Mr. Atturney was turn-key, pro tempore, and let them in single at one door. 1680 C. Nesse Church Hist. 31 God..vouchsaf'd to be Noah's turnkey. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1780 (1848) 649/1 Mr. Akerman..ordered the outer turnkey upon no account to open the gate. 1864 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) III. 232 He bowed to the judge, and walked away with the turnkey. 1878 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cv. 20 When God means to enlarge his prisoners, kings become his turnkeys. |
2. a. ? A burglar's implement for turning from the outside a key left in the door. ? Obs. b. A tooth-key, formerly used in dentistry; a tooth-wrest.
| 1803 Sporting Mag. XXII. 126 A Bow-street officer found a little loose powder, a turnkey, and some other trifling articles. 1855 P. T. Barnum Life vi. 91 The pseudo-dentist went to work, and by dint of hammer, pincers, and ‘turnkeys’, he extracted the twenty teeth. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Turnkey, an instrument to extract teeth; not much used now. |
3. Used attrib. to designate a contract, system, etc., whereby the contractor undertakes to supply or install a complete product or service that is ready for immediate use.
| 1934 Webster, Turn-key job. 1958 Times 16 Dec. 6/5 The station, which is to supply the colony's rapidly growing needs, is being built on a ‘turnkey’ contract by the English Electric Company, which is supplying all the electrical plant. 1964 Times Rev. Industry Feb. 48/2 It now has a reputation for successful completion of contracts on a ‘turnkey’ basis, starting from a survey of the geology of the country concerned and ending with the handing over of a complete factory with trained staff. 1966 Economist 5 Mar. 925/1 The so-called ‘turnkey’ factories, bought ready to go into production and wholly on credit. 1979 Personal Computer World Nov. 32 (Advt.), We offer a variety of turnkey systems. 1980 Nature 24 Apr. 657/2 A standard PWR reactor of the type sold by Westinghouse all over the world under turn-key contract. 1984 Christian Science Monitor 2 Mar. 17/1 One likely institutional change is the construction of ‘turnkey’ nuclear power plants. |