Word.ws English Dictionary

turned one's back

turned one's back is the simple past and past participle of turn one's back.

Meaning of turn one's back

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)

  1. (intransitive) To cease paying attention.
    • As soon as I turned my back, he started writing on the wall.
  2. (figuratively, intransitive) To forsake, to abandon; to ignore.
    • He got off to a strong start, only to turn his back on the project two months later.
  3. (intransitive) To turn away, as when fleeing or in contempt.

Questions about turned one's back

What is turned one's back the simple past and past participle of?
Turned one's back is the simple past and past participle of turn one's back.

Words near turned one's back in the dictionary

  1. turned off
  2. turned on
  3. turned on its head
  4. turned on one's heel
  5. turned on the waterworks
  6. turned one's back
  7. turned one's coat
  8. turned one's color
  9. turned one's life around
  10. turned one's life upside down
  11. turned one's nose up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turned one's back (page history and authors); 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.

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Cite this entry: “turned one's back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turned_one%27s_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.