Word.ws English Dictionary

turn on its head

turn on its head verb: to turn upside-down; to invert.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To turn upside-down; to invert.
    • The crisis turned the formulas that had seemed to work on their head.
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To completely change.
    • The global economic crisis has managed to turn stock exchanges worldwide on their head.
    • Germany regeared for the second half: same shape, more control. Mexico had lost some of their vim. And before long the game had turned on its head, with Germany able to keep the ball now, Kroos hitting his range, and Mexico less adept at seizing possession, unable to spring forward with such gusto.2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...

Forms of turn on its head

third-person singular presentturns on its head
present participleturning on its head
past participleturned on its head
pastturned on its head
alternative formflip on its head

Questions about turn on its head

What does turn on its head mean?
Turn on its head means to turn upside-down; to invert.
What part of speech is turn on its head?
Turn on its head is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn on its head?
The past tense of turn on its head is turned on its head.

Words near turn on its head in the dictionary

  1. turn of the screw
  2. turn of the year
  3. turn of words
  4. turn off
  5. turn on
  6. turn on its head
  7. turn on one's heel
  8. turn on red
  9. turn on the waterworks
  10. turn on, tune in, drop out
  11. turn one's back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn on its head (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-turn on its head.ogg.

Cite this entry: “turn on its head.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_on_its_head. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.