about face
interjection
(used as a military command to perform an about-face.)
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about face
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about-face
about-facenouna turn of 180° from the position of attention.
about face
1 Americaninterjection
about-face
2
American
[uh-bout-feys, uh-bout-feys, uh-bout-feys]
/ əˈbaʊtˌfeɪs, əˈbaʊtˈfeɪs, əˌbaʊtˈfeɪs /
noun
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Military. a turn of 180° from the position of attention.
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a complete, sudden change in position, direction, principle, attitude, etc..
They've done an about-face in their foreign policy.
verb (used without object)
about-faced,
about-facing
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to execute an about face.
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to turn in the opposite direction.
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to switch to an opposite opinion.
Etymology
Origin of about face1
An Americanism dating back to 1860–65
Origin of about-face2
An Americanism dating back to 1860–65
Explanation
An about-face is a turn in the opposite direction. If you're halfway to school when you realize you forgot your lunch, you may have enough time to make an about-face, run home, and grab it. A literal about-face, when you pivot your body to face 180 degrees away from where you started, has a military origin. About-face is a drill command that's given to a group of marching soldiers, who must turn in a smooth, synchronized way to face the opposite direction. Figuratively, an about-face can be an abrupt change of belief, opinion, or practice — like your friend whose diet leans heavily on fast-food hamburgers until he does an about-face and becomes a vegetarian.
Vocabulary lists containing about-face
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Especially given the about face on the prior China restrictions, we are optimistic that quarterly China sales could stabilize sooner rather than later,” Chin said.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 14, 2025
Treating people who use opioids as deserving of the same right to healthcare as any other American demands an about face to the way methadone is delivered.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2023
"One of the things we had was extra rules about face coverings for Covid - now we're going back to standard rules," he said.
From BBC ● May 16, 2023
At a meeting with Jacob the very next day, though, Eastman made an about face.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2022
She glanced furiously about, face flushing scarlet as she applied “thick clouds” to her appearance.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
The about-face is a sign of how markets have become more treacherous for investors, even as indexes keep climbing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who had previously advocated against any type of slowdown and accused Anthropic of fear marketing, has made an about-face after the OpenAI-Hugging Face hacking incident.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
In an apparent about-face, Strategy disclosed on Monday a bitcoin monetization program that could include selling the cryptocurrency to build up its U.S. dollar reserves, as well as fund repurchases of common stock.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
Kelly has done an even starker about-face on one of her favorite topics these days: trans issues, on which she used to be passably sympathetic.
From Slate ● May 6, 2026
Within two years, however, Hall did an about-face and came to see the logic of treating the Icefall as a toll road.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
But it wasn’t long before Musk abruptly about-faced and effectively banned the student from X, accusing Sweeney of endangering his personal safety.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
"They know who it is?" asked Slaight, who had about-faced and was marching next to the guy who had whispered the news.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2023
But then Washington about-faced, easing banking restrictions for six months to allow earthquake relief to flow freely to Syria.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2023
But the Supreme Court about-faced, ruling 5-4 in the 1871 cases Knox v.
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2020
The men quit, gestured obscenely, about-faced, swayed leisurely back to their van, started it up, and drove out of the gorge.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
