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turn back. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
turn back, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
turn back in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
turn back you have here. The definition of the word
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turn back, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Pronunciation
Verb
turn back (third-person singular simple present turns back, present participle turning back, simple past and past participle turned back)
- (intransitive) To reverse direction and retrace one's steps.
- Synonyms: about turn, about face
Realising he had forgotten his briefcase, he turned back and re-entered the office.
1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
- (transitive) To cause to reverse direction and retrace one's steps.
The barrage of machine-gun fire turned back the encroaching soldiers.
1951 February, “Notes and News: Lynton & Barnstaple Remains”, in Railway Magazine, page 136:Pilton Yard, the Lynton & Barnstaple headquarters, has been taken over by a fur trading firm, and would-be trespassers to the old engine-shed are turned back by the pungent odour of heaps of carcases.
- To return to a previous state of being.
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 prevent or refuse to allow passage or progress.
- Synonyms: drive away, repel, turn away, stop
- Coordinate term: kick out
The soldiers turned back all the refugees at the frontier.
- (transitive) To adjust to a previous setting.
In Autumn we normally turn the clocks back one hour.
I love that song: turn back to it!
- (transitive) To fold something back; to fold down.
- Coordinate term: turn down
When you make the bed, please always turn the sheet back over the blanket.
- (obsolete, transitive) To give back; to return.
Usage notes
- In sense 3 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.
- In senses 4 and 5 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.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to turn back, retreat
— see return