handbrake turn

British

noun

a turn sharply reversing the direction of a vehicle by speedily applying the handbrake while turning the steering wheel

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

handbrake turn

But in October this year the Church's leaders performed what one of their critics describes as "a handbrake turn".

From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2025

But many investors do view the UK's handbrake turn as a potential gamechanger.

From Reuters ● Oct. 18, 2022

It didn’t feature a ship insulting the laws of physics by doing a handbrake turn in the middle of the ocean.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 8, 2019

"One colleague described it as a bit of a handbrake turn," Maggie tells me.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2017

Not even Harvey could pull off that handbrake turn.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 25, 2013

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023