turn up for the book
English
Alternative forms
- turn-up for the book
- turn up for the books
- turn-up for the books
Noun
turn up for the book (plural turn ups for the book)
- (idiomatic) a very unexpected, usually pleasant, surprise.
- When it was finally time to board, we got on the train to find out that we’d been put in business class. This was a turn up for the book, reclining seats and room to stretch out a little.
- 1987: Edward Dryhurst, Gilt Off the Gingerbread
- Her mother kept well away from us, which was a turn up for the book, and for the time being at any rate, I was a model husband.
- 2011, Michael Frayn, My Father's Fortune: A Life, →ISBN, page 104:
- All these turn ups for the book had lasting consequences.
- 2013, David Stuart Davies, A Taste for Blood, →ISBN:
- 'Well, boyo, this is a turn up for the book,' observed my friend David Llewellyn without a trace of irony. 'I never expected to wind up in a hospital bed next to you.'
Usage notes
- The plural form turn ups for the book is rarely used outside journalism.
- The phrase turn up for the books is not a plural form of turn up for the book, but an alternative singular form.
Translations
unexpected surprise
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