as in turns away
to drive back
a cavalry charge that was turned back by withering fire
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Recent Examples of turns back
Doing so will ensure your paperwork is processed and ready to go when the spigot turns back on.
—
Cathie Anderson, Sacbee.com, 30 Oct. 2025
And Keenan Allen turns back the clock.
—Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025
Law plays Jake Friedken, a hotshot restaurant owner whose life is thrown into chaos when his black sheep older brother, Vince (Jason Bateman), turns back up after years on the run.
—Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
The third and final part focuses on the President (Idris Elba), who as the clock turns back again is making an appearance at a basketball game.
—Pete Hammond, Deadline, 2 Sep. 2025
Cathie Anderson, Sacbee.com, 30 Oct. 2025
And Keenan Allen turns back the clock.
—Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025
Law plays Jake Friedken, a hotshot restaurant owner whose life is thrown into chaos when his black sheep older brother, Vince (Jason Bateman), turns back up after years on the run.
—Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
The third and final part focuses on the President (Idris Elba), who as the clock turns back again is making an appearance at a basketball game.
—Pete Hammond, Deadline, 2 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for turns back
Verb
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The Spaniard receives with his back to goal and turns away from Morato before being brought down.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
19 Oct. 2025
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And surely enough, the club’s focus soon turns away from their increasingly baffling cold case and onto a more pressing one.—
Manuel Betancourt,
Variety,
22 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The windshield repels the huddled form and the thump on the pavement sounds like a rebuke.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
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It’s made from solid red wood cedar that’s water-resistant, won’t decay, and repels insects.—
Shea Simmons,
Southern Living,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The research team revealed that plastination is a new method for managing moisture in wood by replacing water in the cellular structure with a silicone compound to create a durable, hydrophobic barrier that resists swelling, rotting, and cracking.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Nov. 2025
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So, for me, that was the creation of the Anti-American Speech Committee, which is a government panel essentially designed to prosecute artists for holding views or creating work that resists basically the fascist state that has overtaken the American government.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Turns back.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/turns%20back. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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