plural churns
1
: a container in which cream is stirred or shaken to make butter
2
: a regular, quantifiable process or rate of change that occurs in a business over a period of time as existing customers are lost and new customers are added
The biggest problem they face is churn. Wireless providers lose an average of about 30% of their customers a year to competitors.—
Brian O'Reilly
Brian O'Reilly
also
: a similar process or rate of change involving loss and addition of employees, companies, etc.
The resulting employment churn—the average job tenure is now two years, and today's typical 32-year-old has held nine different jobs—means more risks as well as more opportunities to discover new paths. —Jamais Cascio
Jamais Cascio
churned; churning; churns
1
: to agitate (milk or cream) in a churn in order to make butter
The farmer churns his cream every day.
2
a
: to stir or agitate violently
an old stern-wheeler churning the muddy river
larger particles pound and churn the Moon's surface—E. M. Shoemaker
E. M. Shoemaker
b
: to make (something, such as foam) by so doing
3
of a stockbroker or brokerage
: to make (the account of a client) excessively active by frequent purchases and sales primarily in order to generate commissions
unscrupulous brokers may churn an account, trading frequently to generate high commissions—Mary Rowland
Mary Rowland1
: to work a churn (as in making butter)
2
a
: to produce, proceed with, or experience violent motion or agitation
her stomach was churning
churning legs
b
: to proceed by or as if by means of rotating members (such as wheels or propellers)
boats churning across the harbor
Synonyms
Examples of churn in a Sentence
Verb
The motorboats churned the water.
The water churned all around us.
The wheels began to slowly churn.
He showed them how to churn butter.
Recent Examples on the WebTheresa McKinney, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Apr. 2024
By reducing overall churn in the job market, the agency argued, the measures also disadvantage workers who aren't covered by them because fewer jobs become available as fewer people leave their positions.
—Christopher Rugaber, Quartz, 23 Apr. 2024
Knowing that churn is inevitable; employees should be constantly assessing their skills and relevancy against the market.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
Streaming video services continue to face challenges like high costs, high churn rates and competition from other media — while a good chunk of U.S. audiences still questions whether the price of their subscriptions is worth it.
—Todd Spangler, Variety, 20 Mar. 2024
The planet’s surface is a churn of deposition and erosion, uplift and subsidence, which tend to erase from sight evidence of even the most consequential events.
—Zach St. George, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
The moves in streaming come as Disney tries to shore up its streaming business by reducing viewer churn and increasing engagement.
—Samantha Masunaga, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Tentpole franchises, seen as a way to reduce subscriber churn, have remained nominal at Netflix, where Extraction is the most notable film series.
—Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Apr. 2024
Marketing leaders are accustomed to obsessing over conversions and churn—just not within their own ranks.
—Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 1 Apr. 2024
Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 22 Apr. 2024
In one early sequence, Malik, Eric, and other neighborhood kids launch themselves onto a pile of old mattresses, their carefree shouts commingling with the ecstatically churning strings of Jay Wadley’s score.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2024
April 20, 2024 Rahul Gandhi stood in a red Jeep, amid a churning crowd in Varanasi, trying to unseat the Indian government with a microphone in his hand.
—Samanth Subramanian Vikas Adam Tanya Pérez Zachary Mouton, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
The presence of a magnetosphere implies that part of Mercury’s core is still churning.
—Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Apr. 2024
The innermost planet, hot and tumultuous, was modeled after Io, a moon of Jupiter that churns with lava.
—Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2024
Morgan has been churning the Carolina roster the way a bunch of middle-school kids rock the pool at a last-day-of-school party, but that’s understandable.
—Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 28 Mar. 2024
All those characteristics mean that plenty of people will be churning them out for spring meals, including Easter brunch, when eggs are a popular centerpiece.
—Becky Krystal, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2024
Right-wing creators feed off each other in a crushing hate pipeline that churns trans danger into dollars.
—Jeffrey Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2024
Noun
The amateurish explosives—packed into a pair of milk churns—failed to detonate.
—Theresa McKinney, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Apr. 2024
By reducing overall churn in the job market, the agency argued, the measures also disadvantage workers who aren't covered by them because fewer jobs become available as fewer people leave their positions.
—Christopher Rugaber, Quartz, 23 Apr. 2024
Knowing that churn is inevitable; employees should be constantly assessing their skills and relevancy against the market.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
Streaming video services continue to face challenges like high costs, high churn rates and competition from other media — while a good chunk of U.S. audiences still questions whether the price of their subscriptions is worth it.
—Todd Spangler, Variety, 20 Mar. 2024
The planet’s surface is a churn of deposition and erosion, uplift and subsidence, which tend to erase from sight evidence of even the most consequential events.
—Zach St. George, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
The moves in streaming come as Disney tries to shore up its streaming business by reducing viewer churn and increasing engagement.
—Samantha Masunaga, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Tentpole franchises, seen as a way to reduce subscriber churn, have remained nominal at Netflix, where Extraction is the most notable film series.
—Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Apr. 2024
Marketing leaders are accustomed to obsessing over conversions and churn—just not within their own ranks.
—Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 1 Apr. 2024
Verb
But years after his 1996 death, the Tupac industrial complex churns along via corporations longing to make another buck from a bygone Black artist.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 22 Apr. 2024
In one early sequence, Malik, Eric, and other neighborhood kids launch themselves onto a pile of old mattresses, their carefree shouts commingling with the ecstatically churning strings of Jay Wadley’s score.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 22 Apr. 2024
April 20, 2024 Rahul Gandhi stood in a red Jeep, amid a churning crowd in Varanasi, trying to unseat the Indian government with a microphone in his hand.
—Samanth Subramanian Vikas Adam Tanya Pérez Zachary Mouton, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
The presence of a magnetosphere implies that part of Mercury’s core is still churning.
—Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Apr. 2024
The innermost planet, hot and tumultuous, was modeled after Io, a moon of Jupiter that churns with lava.
—Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2024
Morgan has been churning the Carolina roster the way a bunch of middle-school kids rock the pool at a last-day-of-school party, but that’s understandable.
—Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 28 Mar. 2024
All those characteristics mean that plenty of people will be churning them out for spring meals, including Easter brunch, when eggs are a popular centerpiece.
—Becky Krystal, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2024
Right-wing creators feed off each other in a crushing hate pipeline that churns trans danger into dollars.
—Jeffrey Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'churn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near churn
Cite this Entry
“Churn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/churn. Accessed 2 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
churn
1 of 2 noun
: a container in which milk or cream is stirred or shaken in making butter
churn
2 of 2 verb1
: to stir or shake in a churn (as in making butter)
2
a
: to stir or shake violently
the boat's propeller churning the water
b
: to produce, move with, or experience violent motion or agitation
her stomach was churning
churning legs
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