turn back
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Verb
|
Third person singular |
Simple past |
Past participle |
Present participle |
to turn back (third-person singular simple present turns back, present participle turning back, simple past and past participle turned back)
- To reverse one's direction and retrace one's steps.
- Realising he had forgotten his briefcase, he turned back to the office.
- To backtrack
- He stopped drinking for a couple of years, but now he has turned back to his old ways
- Once we take this decision, there's no turning back.
- (transitive)to fold something back; to fold down
- When you make the bed, please always turn the sheet back over the blanket.
- (transitive) No turn a dial anticlockwise or adjust a clock or other meter to an earlier time or reading.
- In Autumn we normally turn the clocks back one hour.
- (transitive) To refuse to allow someone to pass a border or enter a place.
- The soldiers turned back all the refugees at the frontier.
[edit] Usage notes
- In senses 3 and 4 the object is normally a thing. It may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.
- In sense 5 the object is normally a person, or group of people, or means of transport. It may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.
[edit] Synonyms
- (1): about turn, about face
- (3): fold, fold back
- (5): drive away
[edit] Related terms
turn back the clock (figurative)
