take turns

idiomatic phrase

variants also British take it in turns

: to do something one after another in regular succession in order to share the responsibility or opportunity of doing it : alternate

We take turns washing the dishes.

Almost immediately, Rick and Diane begin videotaping their classroom lessons, letting their students take turns with the cameras.—

Ann Bradley

Several youths were around the phone, taking it in turns to gossip and joke with the operator.—

Christopher Isherwood

Examples of take turns in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The Weekend Update annual joke swap segment is simple: Che and Jost take turns reading jokes written for them by the other man. —

Bruce Haring, Deadline, 11 July 2024 The human touch The students took turns tolling sequences for everything from calls to Easter Mass, bad weather warnings, help for fighting a fire to orders for the village militia. —

Joseph Wilson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 July 2024 The Democratic Alliance formed a minority government that left out Chega, whose insurgency threatens to disrupt the long two-party dominance of the Socialists and Social Democrats that have taken turns in power since Portugal’s revolution in 1974. —

Koh Ewe, TIME, 1 July 2024 In between quick breaks at the chic soirée presented by Pandora, attendees took turns taking polaroids (including posing with the NBA championship trophy in tow thanks to fellow party-goer Jaylen Brown), specially calligraphed with a cheeky message en français. —

Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 24 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for take turns

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'take turns.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.