to turn round
1
1.4
- phrasal verb
- /tɜrn raʊnd/
- UK
:
dar la vuelta
- Could you please turn round and face the front of the room?
They'd seen the American Clippers and just turned round, but the boat was still out there.
- They'd seen the American Clippers and just turned round, but the boat was still out there.
- Liam's gently kind of shading back from me and as I turn round, he's heading off in the opposite direction.
- So I perhaps cheekily put my hand a bit closer and he turned round.
- Just carried on there, Mendy And so I turned round.
- And what upset me more was that I turned round and when I said this, this racist word and I'm not like that, it was proving a point.
Examples
-
Would you mind turning round?
-
When she turned round to unlock the door, her eyes wandered over me, but she did not recognize me.
Fiction book (1997) -
So one player will come in from this corner, go down this edge, up the middle, and then turn round and off in that direction.
-
Now you can turn round and can drive--
-
You see, the earth takes 24 hours to turn round on its axis.
-
"Off with you home to Mummy!" she cut him short without even turning round to face him.
Fiction book (1994) -
I suggest you turn round and head right back from whence you came.
-
When he was almost upon us, we turned round and backed away, warily.
Fiction book (2000) -
"She turned round to study his face closely and nodded in relief."
Fiction book (1996) -
He turned round hastily, his hands busy with the rope, and saw in the doorway the figure of Daft Jimmy, the Moorthorne idiot.
Fiction book (1995)
Synonyms
384
2.0
To move your body to face the opposite direction or change your attitude
227
1.0
To make something turn around quickly
144
3.0
To turn around a central point, like a wheel or planet
38
2.1
To turn your body quickly in a circle many times
24
4.1
To turn quickly to face a different direction
12
4.2
To turn around a fixed point
10
3.2
Turn quickly to face the opposite direction
3
4.2
To turn quickly to face a different direction
1
6.1
To turn quickly to face the other way
1
4.8
To turn quickly to face another direction or change your opinion suddenly
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to move your body so that you are facing in the opposite direction' is directly and compositionally derived from 'turn' (to rotate/move) plus 'round' (indicating movement around/around to the other side). This motion verb + particle pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Turn round comes from the simple action of turning your body to face the other way: turn means to move and round shows a full change of direction, so the phrase now means 'to face the opposite direction'.