Meaning of about-turn | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A turn of 180 degrees, typically in a military formation .
   British
2. Total reversal of opinion or attitude .

Equivalents

Examples

“A sell-out crowd of 10,000 then observed perfectly a period of silence before the team revealed their black armbands, complete with stitched-in poppies, for the match. After Fifa’s about-turn, it must have been a frantic few days for the England kit manufacturer. The on-field challenge was altogether more straightforward.”

“When Francis visited Chile in 2018, he dismissed the protesters and accused them of “calumny” in the full gaze of the world’s press. It caused the head of the Vatican’s own sex abuse commission to rebuke his boss publicly. Back in Rome, Francis responded by dispatching an envoy to look into the case. When his report came back siding with the protesters, Francis did a swift about-turn and described what he said on his visit to Chile as “the lowest moment” of his papacy.”

CEFR level