turn one's back on

1. 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.

Example Sentences

"This is not a moment to turn one's back on difficulties, but to confront difficulties, so I am not quitting," Costa told parliament.

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To preach sober sex for all, all the time, would be to deliberately turn one’s back on the reality that people like to get messed up and screw.

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Francois Delattre said that 25 years after the Oslo Accords started the peace process, “there might be a temptation to turn one’s back on the agreed framework.”

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Some moments of the film posed a challenge; Moana raging at the ocean, for example, contravened a Maori cultural rule to never curse or turn one’s back on the sea, so they turned it into a more humorous moment using careful wordplay.

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For any person of science or faith, it should be impossible to turn one’s back on a tormented soul.

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Related Words

• decline 
• ignore 
• protest 
• rebuff 
• reject 
• turn down 
• withdraw 
• withhold