flip the script

present singular third person flips the script · participle present flipping the script · participle past flipped the script · past flipped the script

1. CanadaUSinformalTo reverse a situation, especially by doing something unexpected.

   But sometimes she'd flip the script and come out with some tight shit on, turning that magnetic strength up to full power.

   2008, Brian Peterson, Move Over, Girl: A Novel, page 63

   4 more examples

   Some people walk with a panther or strike a buffalo stance that makes you wanna dance. Other people flip the script on the day of the jackal that'll make you cackle.

   2003, Deborah Gregory, The Cheetah Girls: Livin' Large!, page 405

   We need to flip the script and start showing that same level of compassion and love toward each other, and perhaps we will then gain respect and control over our communities.

   2010, Inkwell, Children in the Belly of the Beast: Breeding Ground for Social Pathology, page 148

   And we're not talking about me. We're talking about you. What's with you Kings? You're always trying to flip the script on me.

   2011, Adrianne Byrd, King's Promise, page 94

   I know there are exceptions, and I’m not trying to flip the script and reveal the reactionary face of Hollywood, though it’s true that in the years of the Production Code (from the mid-’30s until the late ’60s), Hollywood upheld a fairly conservative vision of American life.

   2022 June 2, A. O. Scott, “Are the Movies Liberal?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: turn the tables, change the game