the turn of the century

the turn of the century

At or near the end of one century and the beginning of another. At the turn of the 20th century, the introduction of factory electrification caused a huge boom in manufacturing. Scientists predict we won't see artificial intelligence that sophisticated until the turn of the century.
See also: century, of, turn
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

turn of the century

the time when the year changes to one with two final zeros, such as from 1899 to 1900. (Although technically incorrect-a new century begins with the year ending in 01—most people ignore this.) My family moved to America at the turn of the century. My uncle was born before the turn of the last century.
See also: century, of, turn
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

turn of the century

The beginning or end of a particular century, as in That idiom dates from the turn of the century, that is to say, about 1900. This expression was first recorded in 1926.
See also: century, of, turn
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

the ˌturn of the ˈcentury/ˈyear

the time when a new century/year starts: He was born around the turn of the century.
See also: century, of, turn, year
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • the turn of the century/year
  • turn of the century
  • fin de siècle
  • last-ditch defense/effort
  • century
  • century note
  • what do you know, (well)
  • hard/tough act to follow
  • dream team
  • London
References in periodicals archive
American Photographs at the Turn of the Century." Prospects 13 (Winter 1988): 341-90.
"Looking at One's Self Through the Eyes of Others": W. E. B. Du Bois's Photographs for the 1900 Paris Exposition
The system was constructed at the turn of the century to supply high-pressure water to fight fires.
Internet may replace water
The theater we used is amazing, a product of the rubber boom at the turn of the century. At the time, Manaus was the richest city in the Americas.
A THOUSAND WORDS
The measurements suggest that atmospheric concentrations of these chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) will peak before the turn of the century and then start to decline, allowing the stratospheric ozone layer to begin the slow process of repairing itself.
Signs of success with CFCs
Mary Nash, whose previous works have laid much of the groundwork for Spanish women's history, shows how the dominant discourse on gender in Spain after the turn of the century, paralleling West Europe's, shifted from one whose rationale for women's difference was based largely on religion toward increasing biological essentialism.
Constructing Spanish Womanhood: Female Identity in Modem Spain
These constructed identities that facilitated lynching were repeated or refuted by both black and white writers who influenced public discourse on race and worked to reinvent ideas of "blackness" and/or "whiteness" at the turn of the century.
Race, Rape, and Lynching: The Red Record of American Literature, 1890-1912
The structure was among several improvements planned for the "Little Italy" neighborhood at the turn of the century.
Landmarks designation for Downtown skyscraper, three civic buildings
Dreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (The New Press, $40), his latest foray, combines photographs sold by the Detroit Publishing Company at the turn of the century with text about the state of American life between 1900 and 1910.
To be real
Scientists first noticed ethylene's effects on plants at the turn of the century. when they realized that this gas, leaking from street lamps, caused trees to drop their leaves.
Plants relay signals much as animals do
(In this, empleados are akin to the arcesanos with whom they often formed mutual aid societies, a relationship not discussed by Parker.) This sense of difference helped propel the turn of the century discussion on the "so cial question" into calls for special social legislation that, in time, became a contentious political issue around which empleados could unite.
The Idea of the Middle Class: White-Collar Workers and Peruvian Society, 1900-1950
Hopkins imbues the intriguing ideas of the "new psychology" at the turn of the century with significance for black women by making use of these nascent theories in her exploration of racially motivated sexual sadism, by which I mean slavery's eroticization of cruelty.
Hysteria and trauma in Pauline Hopkins' 'Of One Blood, Or, the Hidden Self.'
But around the turn of the century, in England and America, liberalism changed its course.
Liberalism
recalled how this property was used at the turn of the century to arrive at her decision.
Agreements of old can haunt us today
Conflict diminished markedly, if not entirely, soon after the turn of the century, giving rise to the myth, both popular and scholarly, that Rondon pacified the Bororo almost single-handedly after gaining the confidence of several chiefs in the 1890s and early 1900s.(16) But this narrative misconstrues the chain of events that led to Bororo subjugation, underestimates the role of violence, robs the Bororo of the initiative of seeking peace, and invests republican authorities with the altruism and racial tolerance they claimed for themselves.
Myths of pacification: Brazilian frontier settlement and the subjugation of the Bororo Indians
With what he called his "clinic in every book," Mitchell assumed the influence of the literary intellectual at the turn of the century: The physician becomes the literary realist, the "Editor's Study" now at bedside.
Racial hysteria: female pathology and race politics in France Harper's 'Iola Leroy' and W.D. Howells's 'An Imperative Duty.'