Meaning of turn back | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To reverse direction and retrace one's steps.
   intransitive
2. To cause to reverse direction and retrace one's steps.
   transitive
3. To return to a previous state of being.
4. To prevent, or refuse to allow, passage or progress.
   transitive
5. To adjust to a previous setting.
   transitive
6. To fold something back; to fold down.
   transitive
7. To give back; to return.
   obsolete, transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“Realising he had forgotten his briefcase, he turned back and re-entered the office.”

“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.”

“The barrage of machine-gun fire turned back the encroaching soldiers.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Welcome⟳ to your life There's no turning back Even while we sleep⟳ We will find⟳ you”

“The soldiers turned back all the refugees at the frontier.”

“In Autumn we normally turn⟳ the clocks back one hour.”

“I love⟳ that song: turn⟳ back to it!”

“When you make⟳ the bed, please⟳ always turn⟳ the sheet back over the blanket.”

“We turn⟳ not back the silks upon the merchants, When we have⟳ soiled them; nor the remainder viands.”

CEFR level