For any $ε> 0$, we show that if $G$ is a regular graph on $n \gg_ε1$ vertices that is $ε$-far (differs by at least $εn^2$ edges) from any Turán graph, then its second eigenvalue $λ_2$ satisfies $$λ_2 \geq n^{1/4 - ε}.$$ The exponent $1/4$ is optimal. Our result generalizes an analogous bound, independently obtained by Balla, Räty -- Sudakov-Tomon, and Ihringer, which only applies to graphs with density at most $\frac{1}{2}$. Up to a lower-order factor, this confirms a conjecture of Räty, Sudakov and Tomon. Our spectral approach has interesting applications to max-cut. First, we show that if a graph $G$, on $n \gg_ε1$ vertices and $m$ edges, is $ε$-far from a disjoint union of cliques, then it has a max-cut of size at least $$\frac{m}{2} + n^{1.01}.$$ Our result improves upon a classical result of Edwards by a non-trivial polynomial factor, making progress towards another conjecture of Räty, Sudakov and Tomon. As another application of our method, we show that if a graph $G$ is $H$-free and has $m$ edges, then $G$ has a max-cut of size at least $$\frac{m}{2} + c_H m^{0.5001}$$ where $c_H > 0$ is some constant depending on $H$ only. This result makes progress towards a conjecture of Alon, Bollobás, Krivelevich and Sudakov, and answers recent questions by Glock-Janzer-Sudakov and Balla-Janzer-Sudakov.