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Glite Dictionary
to turn back the clock

to turn back the clock

11 5.2
To go back to an earlier time or wish you could
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : volver atrás en el tiempo
  • Typically, times of economic distress make people reactionary, desperate to turn back the clock to supposedly better times.
  • wants to turn back the clock
  • wish to turn back the clock
  • tried to turn back the clock

It cannot simply turn back the clock.

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Examples

  • You can turn back the clock right now.

    The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

  • You really can turn back the clock.

    Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979)

  • All these things they want to turn back the clock to where none of those people had any power.

  • And it does a body good to turn back the clock and think, why did somebody choose you for their life partner?

  • And, in this case, they think they can turn back the clock.

    Blog text (32)

  • I have no doubt medicine will someday be able to turn back the clock on the aging process.

    Blog text (24)

  • Even now, not a day goes by when I don't wish I could turn back the clock and change what happened.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Let's just...let's just turn back the clock and take a walk.

    Café Society (2016)

  • We must not allow slash-and-burn budgets to turn back the clock.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Many people wish they could turn back the clock to simpler times before technology changed our lives.

Synonyms

to revert
vsto turn back the clock
67 4.2

To go back to a previous state or way of doing things

focuses on wanting to go back in time rather than simple state change
to rewind
vsto turn back the clock
50 3.3

To move a watch, tape, or film back to its start

describes wanting to return to a past period, not a physical mechanism
to rewind time
vsto turn back the clock
7.6

To imagine going back to an earlier time because you regret something

focuses on wanting to return to a simpler or better past
to put the clock back
vsto turn back the clock
  • UK
7.6

To wish you could go back to an earlier time to change things or live it again

focuses on wishing to return to a simpler or better past
to roll back the years
vsto turn back the clock
  • Informal
6.9

Make someone feel young again when they remember the past

expresses a wish to return to a past seen as simpler, not just nostalgia
to retrovert
vsto turn back the clock
9.9

To go back to an earlier state or way of doing things

is about longing to return to an earlier time rather than a factual reversal

Antonyms

to move ahead
61 2.7

To start or continue something so it gets closer to a goal

to embrace change
3 3.8

To willingly accept and adapt to new situations

How Nostalgic

to yearn
92 4.9
to turn back the clock
  • Informal
11 5.2
to look back
323 2.6

Surface Forms

turn back the clock infinitive
turned back the clock past
turned back the clock past participle
turning back the clock present participle
turns back the clock third person singular

Morphology

turn + back + the + clock

The phrase maps directly from the literal action of moving a clock to an earlier time to the metaphorical idea of reverting to a previous time or situation, so the constituent meanings ('turn' + 'back' + 'clock') provide a clear cue. However, it relies on the time-as-clock metaphor and pragmatic usage (wishing to reverse events) rather than strict compositionality, so a B1 learner might infer the sense but could also interpret it literally without exposure.

Etymology

The idiom turn back the clock comes from the simple image of moving a clock's hands back to an earlier time. That's why it means 'to go back' to a previous time or situation, often one you wish you could have again.