Word.ws English Dictionary

turn tail

turn tail verb: to turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee.
    • A box-lobby lion or a Regent-street animal . . . will never bite, and, if you offer to attack him manfully, will fairly turn tail and sneak off.1838, Charles Dickens, “Some Particulars Concerning A Lion”, in Mudfog and Other Sketches
    • [H]e stormed at me all through the lessons in a very violent manner of scolding, [...] I was often tempted to turn tail, but held my ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons; [...]1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Flight in the Heather: The Heugh of Corrynakiegh”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London...

turn tail meaning in Tamil and Bengali

turn tail in Tamil

Translations
புறமுதுகுகாட்டு puṟamutukukāṭṭu

turn tail in Bengali

গতিপথ পরিবর্তন করা, চলে যাওয়া, পালিয়ে যাওয়া

Synonyms of turn tail

Forms of turn tail

third-person singular presentturns tail
present participleturning tail
past participleturned tail
pastturned tail

Questions about turn tail

What does turn tail mean?
Turn tail means to turn away from someone or something, in preparation for running away; to reverse direction; to leave or flee.
What is turn tail in Tamil?
Turn tail in Tamil is புறமுதுகுகாட்டு (puṟamutukukāṭṭu). See Turn tail meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is turn tail?
Turn tail is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn tail?
The past tense of turn tail is turned tail.

Words near turn tail in the dictionary

  1. turn something into an art form
  2. turn south
  3. turn square corners
  4. turn stop
  5. turn stops
  6. turn tail
  7. turn the air blue
  8. turn the boat
  9. turn the boat around
  10. turn the clock back
  11. turn the clocks back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn tail (page history and authors); turn tail (Bengali Wiktionary) (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 tail.ogg.

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