Word.ws English Dictionary

turn on one's heel

turn on one's heel verb: to suddenly turn away from someone or something in order to depart rapidly, especially as expressive of haughtiness, disapproval, or evasiveness.

Verb

turn on one's heel (third-person singular simple present turns on one's heel, present participle turning on one's heel, simple past and past participle turned on one's heel)

  1. (idiomatic) To suddenly turn away from someone or something in order to depart rapidly, especially as expressive of haughtiness, disapproval, or evasiveness.
    • There he stood, answering shortly and gruffly to all questions proposed to him, . . . and as soon as the ancient priestess had handed him his glass of the salutiferous water, turned on his heel with a brief good-morning.1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 9, in St. Ronan's Well
    • "Well, Maude, he was on the platform this morning, and when he saw me, he turned on his heel and hurried out of the station."1899, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 14, in A Duet

turn on one's heel meaning in Arabic

turn on one's heel in Arabic

to turn around and leave the other way
اِنْقَلَبَ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ نَكَصَ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ inqalaba ʕalā ʕaqibayhi

Forms of turn on one's heel

third-person singular presentturns on one's heel
present participleturning on one's heel
past participleturned on one's heel
pastturned on one's heel

Words formed from turn on one's heel

Questions about turn on one's heel

What does turn on one's heel mean?
Turn on one's heel means to suddenly turn away from someone or something in order to depart rapidly, especially as expressive of haughtiness, disapproval, or evasiveness.
What is turn on one's heel in Arabic?
Turn on one's heel in Arabic is اِنْقَلَبَ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ نَكَصَ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ (inqalaba ʕalā ʕaqibayhi). See Turn on one's heel meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is turn on one's heel?
Turn on one's heel is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn on one's heel?
The past tense of turn on one's heel is turned on one's heel.

Words near turn on one's heel in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn on one's heel (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 one's heel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “turn on one's heel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_on_one%27s_heel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.