Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb turn_back

5 senses of turn back

Sense 1
backtrack, turn back, double back -- (retrace one's course; "The hikers got into a storm and had to turn back")
       => return -- (go or come back to place, condition, or activity where one has been before; "return to your native land"; "the professor returned to his teaching position after serving as Dean")

Sense 2
revert, return, retrovert, regress, turn back -- (go back to a previous state; "We reverted to the old rules")
       => change by reversal, turn, reverse -- (change to the contrary; "The trend was reversed"; "the tides turned against him"; "public opinion turned when it was revealed that the president had an affair with a White House intern")

Sense 3
chase away, drive out, turn back, drive away, dispel, drive off, run off -- (force to go away; used both with concrete and metaphoric meanings; "Drive away potential burglars"; "drive away bad thoughts"; "dispel doubts"; "The supermarket had to turn back many disappointed customers")
       => move, displace -- (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense; "Move those boxes into the corner, please"; "I'm moving my money to another bank"; "The director moved more responsibilities onto his new assistant")

Sense 4
check, turn back, arrest, stop, contain, hold back -- (hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of; "Arrest the downward trend"; "Check the growth of communism in South East Asia"; "Contain the rebel movement"; "Turn back the tide of communism")
       => defend -- (be on the defensive; act against an attack)

Sense 5
turn back, invert, reverse -- (turn inside out or upside down)
       => change, alter, modify -- (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation; "The advent of the automobile may have altered the growth pattern of the city"; "The discussion has changed my thinking about the issue")