Word.ws English Dictionary

turn one's coat

turn one's coat verb: to turn against a previous affiliation or allegiance.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To turn against a previous affiliation or allegiance.
    • To meet the exigence of the moment, a considerable army was raised under General Baillie, a Presbyterian officer of skill and fidelity, with whom was joined in command the celebrated Sir John Urrie, a soldier of fortune like Dalgetty, who had already changed sides twice during the Civil War, and...1819, Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose
    • Bruce would scarcely have found this sufficient cause to turn his coat.2012, Nigel Tranter, The Wallace, →ISBN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see turn, coat.
    Synonyms:
    change sides, defect

Synonyms of turn one's coat

Forms of turn one's coat

third-person singular presentturns one's coat
present participleturning one's coat
past participleturned one's coat
pastturned one's coat
alternative formturn coat

Origin of turn one's coat

From the practice of turning one's uniform coat inside out in order to hide the colors reflecting one's allegiance.

Questions about turn one's coat

What does turn one's coat mean?
Turn one's coat means to turn against a previous affiliation or allegiance.
What part of speech is turn one's coat?
Turn one's coat is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn one's coat?
The past tense of turn one's coat is turned one's coat.

Words near turn one's coat in the dictionary

  1. turn on one's heel
  2. turn on red
  3. turn on the waterworks
  4. turn on, tune in, drop out
  5. turn one's back
  6. turn one's coat
  7. turn one's color
  8. turn one's hand to
  9. turn one's life around
  10. turn one's life upside down
  11. turn one's nose up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn one's coat (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 coat.ogg.

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