star turn

noun

1. the leading performer or act in a play, review, film, or the like.
2. a bravura performance by a featured player or act.

Word History and Origins

Origin of star turn¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Through the first five games, it’s been more of a cameo than a star turn for Anthony Adkins.

From Los Angeles Times

Jolie hasn’t had a chance to demonstrate the full scope of her talents in far too long, which is precisely why her star turn in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria” is bound to turn heads: It’s a performance that only someone of true, old-fashioned movie star caliber could pull off.

From Salon

Smith won an Oscar for her 1969 star turn in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” about a larger-than-life teacher at a girls’ school in Edinburgh who wants to liberate the minds of her students with romantic ideas that prove dangerous if not fascistic.

From Los Angeles Times

“It’s a pretty rapid change in the politics around housing,” Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, one of the party’s most vocal YIMBYs, told me last week about seeing housing’s star turn at the Democratic National Convention.

From Slate

“I’ve followed him since he was on TV,” she said, scoffing at Trump’s star turn on “The Apprentice.”

From Los Angeles Times