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

While Katy was at Nicklaus, Kathya and Rudy took turns sleeping there. —David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 19 Oct. 2025

For two years, the members in our poetry group would take turns and read during public comment at the city council meetings. —Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Oct. 2025

With a hundred or so onlookers seated in chairs positioned in a semicircle in the library lobby, the contestants took turns busting rhymes. —Jeff Pearlman, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025

Video shows the trio standing ominously in the front yard before taking turns ringing the bell, knocking on the door and, at one point, jiggling its handle. —Natalie Neysa Alund, USA Today, 17 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1613, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for take turns

• holofernes
• overturns
• subalterns
• adjourns
• concerns
• discerns
• downturns
• internes
• nocturnes
• returns
• sideburns
• churns