churn

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A vessel or device in which cream or milk is agitated to separate the oily globules from the caseous and serous parts, used to make butter.
2. v. To agitate or stir (milk or cream) in order to make butter.
3. v. To make by the agitation of milk or cream: churn butter.
4. v. To shake or agitate vigorously: wind churning up the piles of leaves. See Synonyms at agitate.
5. v. To buy and sell (a client's securities) frequently, especially in order to generate commissions.
6. v. To make butter by operating a device that agitates cream or milk.
7. v. To move with or produce great agitation: waves churning in the storm; so angry it made my stomach churn.
8. churn out To produce in an abundant and automatic manner: churns out four novels a year.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A vessel in which cream or milk is agitated for the purpose of separating the oily parts from the caseous and serous parts, to make butter. Churns are of various kinds. The older forms consist of a dasher moving vertically in a cask shaped like the frustum of a cone. The more modern kinds have revolving dashers within cylindrical vessels, either upright or horizontal. In some forms the vessels themselves are moved in various ways to dash the contents about.
2. To stir or agitate in order to make into butter: as, to churn cream.
3. To make by the agitation of cream: as, to churn butter.
4. To shake or agitate with violence or continued motion, as in the operation of making butter.
5. To perform the act of churning, or an act resembling it.
6. n. A block or chuck on a potter's turning-lathe.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To agitate rapidly and repetitively, or to stir with a rowing or rocking motion; generally applies to liquids, notably cream.
2. v. transitive, figuratively To produce excessive and sometimes undesirable or unproductive activity or motion.
3. v. intransitive To move rapidly and repetitively with a rocking motion; to tumble, mix or shake.
4. n. A vessel used for churning.
5. n. telecommunications The time when a consumer switches his/her service provider.
6. n. telecommunications The mass of people who are ready to switch carriers, expressed by the formula Customer Quits/Customer base.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A vessel in which milk or cream is stirred, beaten, or otherwise agitated (as by a plunging or revolving dasher) in order to separate the oily globules from the other parts, and obtain butter.
2. v. To stir, beat, or agitate, as milk or cream in a churn, in order to make butter.
3. v. To shake or agitate with violence.
4. v. To perform the operation of churning.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. stir (cream) vigorously in order to make butter
2. n. a vessel in which cream is agitated to separate butterfat from buttermilk
3. v. be agitated