turnagain, n. (a.)
(ˈtɜːnəgɛn, -əgeɪn)
[f. the verbal phr. turn again (turn v. 66).]
† 1. A turning again or about; a revolution; a winding or deviation. Obs.
| 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde i. x. (1634) 34 The..vaines infinitely intricate and writhed with a thousand revolutions or turnagaines. 1587 Golding De Mornay xxv. (1592) 380 Moyses in leading the people of Israell through so many turnagaines. |
† b. That which turns back an advance. Obs.
| 1630 R. Johnson's Kindg. & Commw. 43 Mountaines are natures bulwarkes..; the Retreats they are of the oppressed, the scornes and turne-againes of victorious Armies. 1642 Rogers Naaman 252 Why then fall there out so many turnagaines in the lives of the best? |
2. A device in the bobbin-net machine.
| 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. xxxiii. (ed. 3) 349 An improvement in a particular part of such machines, called a turn-again. |
3. = antistrophe.
| 1871 Browning Balaust. 214 Sing them a strophe, with the turn-again, Down to the verse that ends all, proverb-like. |
† 4. attrib. or as adj. in turn-again alley, lane, a blind alley, a cul-de-sac; also, a winding or crooked lane. Obs.
| 1531 Tindale Expos. 1 John Prol. (1537) 5 It is become a turne-agayne lane unto them, which they can not go thorow. 1624 Heywood Gunaik. v. 256 A turne-againe-lane, that had no passage through. c 1730 Burt Lett. N. Scotl. (1818) I. 56 [In Scotland] A little court or turn-again alley, is a closs. 1807 Antiq. Rep. I. 346 It was Friar Richard's ill fate to take into a turn-again lane, that had no passage through. |