Word.ws English Dictionary

reset the dial

reset the dial verb: to change something radically; to reform or revolutionize something.

Verb

reset the dial (third-person singular simple present resets the dial, present participle resetting the dial, simple past and past participle reset the dial)

  1. (UK, idiomatic, often) To change something radically; to reform or revolutionize something.
    • While contemporary designers give us trends, Quant reset the dial on the way we get dressed. Under her influence, women rejected their parents’ vision of beauty and embraced their own.2021 October 28, Karen Dacre, “Miniskirt mayhem! Nine ways Mary Quant revolutionised women’s clothes – and lives”, in The Guardian
    • He said: “I’ve been incredibly lucky to play a part in major new media innovations, from the birth of Sun Online to most recently Times Radio, which has reset the dial on what quality news radio can achieve, and I’m pleased to be still playing a part on the station.2022 January 10, Laura Webster, “More journalists join Piers Morgan at Rupert Murdoch's TalkTV channel”, in The National

Forms of reset the dial

third-person singular presentresets the dial
present participleresetting the dial
past participlereset the dial
pastreset the dial

Questions about reset the dial

What does reset the dial mean?
Reset the dial means to change something radically; to reform or revolutionize something.
What part of speech is reset the dial?
Reset the dial is a verb.
What is the past tense of reset the dial?
The past tense of reset the dial is reset the dial.

Words near reset the dial in the dictionary

  1. reses
  2. resessive
  3. reset
  4. reset button
  5. reset buttons
  6. reset the dial
  7. Resetar
  8. Resetars
  9. resets
  10. resets the dial
  11. resettability

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reset the dial (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “reset the dial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reset_the_dial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.