turn one's back
turn one's back verb: to cease paying attention.
Verb
turn one's back (third-person singular simple present turns one's back, present participle turning one's back, simple past and past participle turned one's back)
- To cease paying attention.
- As soon as I turned my back, he started writing on the wall.
- To forsake, to abandon; to ignore.
- He got off to a strong start, only to turn his back on the project two months later.
- Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Everybody wants to rule the world1985, Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, Chris Hughes, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, in Songs from the Big Chair, performed by Tears for Fears
- To turn away, as when fleeing or in contempt.
Forms of turn one's back
| third-person singular present | turns one's back |
|---|---|
| present participle | turning one's back |
| past participle | turned one's back |
| past | turned one's back |
Questions about turn one's back
- What does turn one's back mean?
- Turn one's back means to cease paying attention.
- What part of speech is turn one's back?
- Turn one's back is a verb.
- What is the past tense of turn one's back?
- The past tense of turn one's back is turned one's back.
Words near turn one's back in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: turn one's back (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-turn one's back.ogg.
Cite this entry: “turn one's back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turn_one%27s_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.