phrasal verb · neutral
turn back
UK/tɜːn bæk/US/tɜrn bæk/TURN·BACK
to return to a previous place or to make someone return; to reverse direction
Examples
“The climbers had to turn back because of bad weather.”
“The police turned the cars back at the checkpoint.”
“We turned back when the road was flooded.”
Band 8 sentence
“Facing worsening storms, the expedition leader ordered everyone to turn back rather than risk the descent.”
Collocations
- turn back the clock
- turn back the cars
- turn back on the path
Word family
Common mistakes
The guard turned back the tourists at the gate.→The guard turned away the tourists at the gate.
I turn back to page 5.→I turned to page 5.
Say it for a higher band
5go back→6return→7+turn back
Synonyms
go back
Easily confused
turn away
“The shelter had to turn away several homeless families due to lack of space.”
turn to
“She turned to page thirty-two and began reading.”
Related words
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In turn …
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