turn one's back on, to
turn one's back on
Deny, reject; also abandon, forsake. For example, I can't turn my back on my own daughter, no matter what she's done, or He simply turned his back on them and never gave it a second thought. [c. 1400] Also see when one's back is turned.
See also: back, on, turn
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
turn one's back on, to
To reject; also, to run away (from a fight). Emerson used it in the first sense in his famous Transcendentalist poem, “Brahma” (1857): “Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.” Tennyson used it in the second sense in “The Revenge”: “Let us bang these dogs of Seville . . . For I never turn’d my back upon Don or devil yet.” The second figurative meaning is the older one, dating from about 1400; the first began to be used about 1600.
See also: back, turn
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- come back and see us
- back
- back at (something or some place)
- be/go back to square one
- a while back
- back door
- back to square one
- be back on the rails
- burn one's bridges/boats, to
- break one's neck, to