wind back the clock
wind back the clock verb: to return in time to an earlier period of history.
Verb
wind back the clock (third-person singular simple present winds back the clock, present participle winding back the clock, simple past and past participle wound back the clock)
- To return in time to an earlier period of history.
- But wind the clock back some 60 years, and you would find that away from the South East of England, the North West once had the most extensive and varied selection of electric routes in the country.2021 February 24, John Crosse, “North West Electrics”, in RAIL, number 925, page 62
- Synonyms:
- turn back the clock, turn back time
Synonyms of wind back the clock
- turn back the clock
- turn back time
Forms of wind back the clock
| third-person singular present | winds back the clock |
|---|---|
| present participle | winding back the clock |
| past participle | wound back the clock |
| past | wound back the clock |
| alternative form | wind the clock back |
Questions about wind back the clock
- What does wind back the clock mean?
- Wind back the clock means to return in time to an earlier period of history.
- What part of speech is wind back the clock?
- Wind back the clock is a verb.
- What is the past tense of wind back the clock?
- The past tense of wind back the clock is wound back the clock.
Words near wind back the clock in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wind back the clock (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-wind back the clock.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wind back the clock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wind_back_the_clock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.