Turbo

//ˈtɜː.bəʊ// adj, noun, verb, slang

adj, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A turbine. countable, informal, uncountable
  2. 2
    Autofire.

    "Controllers with turbo features are banned from most competitive tournaments."

  3. 3
    A turban shell.
  4. 4
    Clipping of turbocharger. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable

    "Superchargers are generally heavier and more expensive than turbos […]"

  5. 5
    Clipping of turbojet. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Clipping of turbomolecular pump. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To autofire.
Adjective
  1. 1
    With rapidly-increasing blind levels. not-comparable

    "This is a turbo tournament: the blinds increase every 5 minutes! Level 1 = 150/300; level 2 = 200/400; etc."

  2. 2
    Causing or relating to increased speed. not-comparable

    "a turbo button on a controller; a PC equipped with a turbo mode"

  3. 3
    Very, super, etc.; usually relating to a qualitative value (as opposed to quantitative). informal, nonstandard, not-comparable

    "They act turbo wasted when they have more than a few beers in them."

Example

More examples

"Frank Whittle, a British pilot, designed and patented the first turbo jet engine in 1930."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From turbine.

Etymology 2

From turbocharged (“increased power”). Also figurative, from the action of a turbocharger, which increases the speed of an automobile through the increase in power of an engine.

Etymology 3

From the New Latin name of the genus Turbo.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.