as in to repel
to drive back
a cavalry charge that was turned back by withering fire
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of turn back
Though its primary purpose is to beautify, this miracle injection fundamentally alters the human body, turning back the clock on aging and illness, with profound implications on everything from gender to disability.
—
Judy Berman, Time, 21 Jan. 2026
Tom Cruise is Precrime's chief commanding officer, but the program is turned back around on him when he's flagged as a future murderer himself.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Jan. 2026
While the aircraft was given the all-clear to attempt its journey again after staying on the ground for an hour and being checked by engineers, the plane had to turn back a second time after a technical issue, according to 9News and The Advertiser.
—Gabrielle Rockson, PEOPLE, 19 Jan. 2026
That turned back the almost-supernatural heroics of the Bears, who won games with fourth-quarter comebacks seven times this season, more than any other team.
—Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for turn back
Judy Berman, Time, 21 Jan. 2026
Tom Cruise is Precrime's chief commanding officer, but the program is turned back around on him when he's flagged as a future murderer himself.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Jan. 2026
While the aircraft was given the all-clear to attempt its journey again after staying on the ground for an hour and being checked by engineers, the plane had to turn back a second time after a technical issue, according to 9News and The Advertiser.
—Gabrielle Rockson, PEOPLE, 19 Jan. 2026
That turned back the almost-supernatural heroics of the Bears, who won games with fourth-quarter comebacks seven times this season, more than any other team.
—Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for turn back
Recent Examples of Synonyms for turn back
Verb
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Coffee grounds are also often used to deter slugs and snails, reduce weeds without chemicals, and even repel neighborhood strays.—
Lauren Landers,
The Spruce,
21 Jan. 2026
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The polarising move attracted the right people and repelled the wrong ones without her spending any energy filtering.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
21 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Some pets cannot resist chewing on houseplants.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
22 Jan. 2026
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Institutions, subcultures and artists have always found ways to resist homogenization.—
Ahmed Elgammal,
Fortune,
22 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Pitts believes in a church that follows in the footsteps of the civil-rights movement and thinks that the turn away from politics might be part of the reason so many young people in subsequent generations have decided to stay home on Sundays.—
Jay Caspian Kang,
New Yorker,
20 Jan. 2026
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The shelters and soup kitchens are full, with the Coalition to End Homelessness stating that homeless services have to turn away 1 in 5 people because there is so much need.—
Livi Stanford,
Hartford Courant,
19 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For reasons that are quite possibly too unbearable to contemplate, a large group of American voters was not repulsed by such slander—they were actually aroused by it—and our politics have not been the same.—
Jeffrey Goldberg,
The Atlantic,
6 Jan. 2026
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Nicole is the kind of wife who moves out of her father’s home into her husband’s home, and who has been taught to be repulsed by the mushroom spores covering her body, just like all the women in their community.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Gibney illustrates that state of waiting, of staving off what at that time appears to be the inevitable, with the famous sequence from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which Max von Sydow’s medieval knight plays chess with Death on a desolate beach.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Jan. 2026
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The 76ers had pulled within two late until Anunoby and Landry Shamet followed with consecutive 3s that helped the Knicks stave off the late-game collapse.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
24 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The dogs had driven the woman into the surf before a tourist came to her rescue, beating off the dingoes.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
20 Jan. 2026
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On this play, Tegra Tshabola got beat off the ball, forcing Donaldson to take a different hole before running into a defender who center Carson Hinzman was on until the hole shifted.—
Cameron Teague Robinson,
New York Times,
15 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Turn back.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/turn%20back. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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