U-turn

noun

1. 1

   A turn in a vehicle carried out by driving in a semicircle in order to travel in the opposite direction.

   What's disappointing about all this doom and gloom is that the franchise has made the kind of whiplashing U-turn you might see in its car-chase sequences.

2. 2

   figurativeA reversal of policy or opinion.

   The government have done a U-turn and are now supporting greater European integration instead of opposing it.

   Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, announced a major U-turn on the government’s climate commitments last month, pushing back the deadline for selling new petrol and diesel cars and the phasing out of gas boilers.

verb

1. 1

   To turn a vehicle in a semicircle so as to face the opposite direction (∩)).

2. 2

   To shift from one opinion or decision to its opposite.

   She made the case for cutting taxes as “the right thing to do morally and economically”, despite having just U-turned over her decision to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax.

Forms

plural

U-turns

past tense

U-turned

past participle

U-turned

present participle

U-turning

third person singular

U-turns