ppl. a. [TURN v. 4, 5.]
1. Skilfully turned or rounded.
[a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 22 July 1670. The arches of the cellars beneath are well turn’d by Mr. Samuel the architect.]
1725. Pope, Odyss., XVIII. 77. His nervous thighs By just degrees like well-turn’d columns rise.
1811. J. Milner, Eccles. Archit. Eng., Pref. p. xv. The well-turned arches of the intercolumniations.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 117. The slice, gradually ascending along this well-turned plate, operates with an equal friction on its whole surface.
2. Of the body or limbs: Symmetrically shaped or rounded.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, II. vi. To play with this smooth, round, And well torn’d chin, as with the Billyard hall.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2281/4. A large well turn’d Chesnut,… 15 hands.
1693. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., I. 670. Her well-turn’d Neck he view’d.
1728. Ramsay, Bonny Kate, iv. How straight, how well-turn’d and genteel, are Her limbs!
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 29. They are a well-made race,… with well-turned thighs and legs.
1886. Corbett, Fall of Asgard, ii. 66. Her well-turned form, so girlish and dainty still.
3. Of speech: Neatly finished, felicitously expressed.
1623. B. Jonson, in Shaks. Wks., To Mem. Author 68. In his well torned, and true-filed lines.
1668. Dryden, Of Dram. Poesie, 59. The labour which is requir’d to well turn’d and polish’d Rhyme.
1714. Addison, Spect., No. 556, ¶ 3. I made a Speech consisting of about half a Dozen well-turned Periods.
1773. Boswell, Tour Hebrides, 22 Oct. (1785), 431. It contains a just and well-turned compliment to my illustrious friend.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, I. 41. Enshrining the friend’s name in a note, commonly with the addition of … some well-turned phrase.
† 4. Of the mind: Having a good bent, well disposed. Obs.
1798. Sophia Lee, Canterb. T., Young Lady’s T., II. 354. Nothing then remains, even in minds well turned, but a sense of mutual duty.
