Take ___ for the worse

ATURN

This phrase suggests a negative change in circumstances, often used when something that was expected to improve actually declines. Think of a common idiom involving direction.

This clue plays on the common phrase "take a turn for the worse," which means a situation suddenly gets bad. The answer "ATURN" drops the "a" from the start to fit the crossword’s word count, but the meaning stays the same. It’s a straightforward fill-in-the-blank where the missing words form a well-known idiom.