three-point turn

British

noun

a turn reversing the direction of motion of a motor vehicle using forward and reverse gears alternately, and completed after only three movements

"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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“It does feel like this EV market has really been like ‘hurry up and wait’” This is partly because the act of transforming century-old industry is like making a three-point turn in a cruise ship.

From The Verge • Dec. 21, 2021

He said Carter was attempting a three-point turn while trying to flee the parking area and grazed the front, right wheel well of one of the patrol cars in the process.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2021

As one of McCarthy’s characters avers during a disquisition on the three-point turn that killed Franz Ferdinand: “I’m not saying anything. Just tracing out a set of lines; a fracture network. That’s all I do.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 15, 2021

Rather than spin-turn the car, the traditional approach to extricating oneself from a Baku escape road, he tried to do a three-point turn.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2021

At the end of our cul-de-sac the driver, a woman, did a three-point turn, stalled once, and drove off up Kingfisher Meadows.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

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