turn around

Verb

turn around (third-person singular simple present turns around, present participle turning around, simple past and past participle turned around)

1. (ergative) To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount.
   • At the end of the road, we turned around and walked back to the hotel.
   • The world turns around once every twenty-four hours.

   Synonyms:

   twirl

2. (figuratively, transitive) To change drastically in a fundamental way, often for the better; to change to the opposite (opinion or position).
   • She turned her position around and now she is in favor of the merger.
   • Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21
3. (transitive) To reverse an expected outcome (of a game, etc.), usually from a losing outcome to a winning one; to return (a business, department, etc.) to effectiveness, profitability, etc.
   • The new management team has really turned the company around 180 degrees, and they expect a good profit next year.
   • The team really turned it around in the second half for a great win.
4. (transitive) To convert (an agent) to work for one's own side.
   • Some months ago, the Captain had come to the FBI with a story that he had been contacted by Soviet agents, and the FBI had “turned him around” and used him to plant false and specially made up classified material of no importance on the Soviets.2014, Joseph DiMona, To the Eagle's Nest
5. (colloquial, idiomatic, intransitive) To suddenly change or reverse one's opinion, point of view, stated position, behaviour, etc.
   • You can't just turn around and say that it was all my fault.
6. (idiomatic, transitive) To consider from a different viewpoint.
   • Let's turn that around and look at it from another angle.
7. (colloquial, idiomatic, transitive) (often with a unit of time) To produce; to output; to generate.
   • We can turn around 500 units by next week.
   • Typically, this meant that the teams were turning around two sets a week, with a train rolling into the depot on a Sunday for what Hinze describes as a "big strip-out". This would pull the carriages back almost to the bare bones.2025 July 23, Richard Wilcock, “A new dawn for the Electrostars”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 27