turnkey

turn +‎ key

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɜː(ɹ)nˌkiː/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

  • (US) enPR: tûrn'-kē

turnkey (comparative more turnkey, superlative most turnkey)

1. Ready to use without further assembly or test; supplied in a state that is ready to turn on and operate (typically refers to an assembly that is outsourced for manufacture)

   They wanted a turnkey solution for the entire system, but we could only provide the enclosure.

   • 1980, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 1980, Kathleen Bailey, When and why weapons; page 42

     Third World countries no longer want to purchase nuclear projects on a turn-key basis; they want to receive advanced technical training as well.

   • 2023 March 22, Ben West, “This 835-Year-Old English Manor Needs Some Modern Love”, in The New York Times‎:

     He cautioned that the house “is not turnkey,” and that because it is “so unusual,” it may take a while to sell. But, he added, “It’s a joy to be selling a property with its history.”

turnkey (plural turnkeys)

1. (now archaic) A warder or jailer/gaoler; keeper of the keys in a prison.
   • 1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 86:

     He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man / With but little expedition, / Which put him in mind of the long debate / On the Slave-trade abolition.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     […] they passed through an open door into a lobby, from which a heavy gate, opposite to that by which they had entered, and which was guarded by a stout turnkey with the key in his hand, led at once into the interior of the prison.

   • 1883, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers‎:

     'Certainly not,' said the turnkey; and the first corroborated his statement.

2. A system that is supplied ready to switch on and operate.
   • 1982, Myron E. Weiner, Human Services Management: Analysis and Applications, page 298:

     The hardware-software costs are packaged together. Turnkeys are either special purpose (e.g., only for one function such as libraries) or general purpose […]

turnkey (third-person singular simple present turnkeys, present participle turnkeying, simple past and past participle turnkeyed)

1. To supply a turnkey product; to supply something fully assembled and ready to use.

   We can sell you all the parts, or we can turnkey the entire unit.