Definition of "well-turned" []

• Shapely: a well-turned ankle. (adjective)
• Concisely or aptly expressed: a well-turned phrase. (adjective)
• Expertly rounded or turned: a well-turned bedpost. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Since Dante is a compendium of the middle ages, bringing together its theology and philosophy as well as its poetry, liturgy and music, this was more that a well-turned phrase."
• "Now Mr. Dubus chronicles the desperation of his own hardscrabble upbringing in the post-industrial mill towns of Massachusetts, where he brawled away his youth before he realized that a well-turned sentence offered more satisfaction than a cleanly landed right cross."
• "He had total recall for dialogue, and launched into long, louche stories about his social experiences, spinning off in colourful tangents "There's a subtext here you may not know about", always coming back, as in a well-turned essay, to his narrative – very funny, wildly indiscreet but never, ever malicious."