turn away

present singular third person turns away · participle present turning away · participle past turned away · past turned away

1. literallytransitiveTo rotate so as not to face someone or something.

   Thereat the Elfe did blush in priuitee, / And turnd his face away; but she the same / Dissembled faire, and faynd to ouersee.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

2. intransitiveliterallyTo rotate oneself so as not to face someone or something.
3. literallytransitiveTo bend or turn from a fixed course.
4. intransitiveliterallyTo bend or turn from a fixed course.

   1 more example

   He met Luis Suarez's cross at the far post, only for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech to show brilliant reflexes to deflect his header on to the bar. Carroll turned away to lead Liverpool's insistent protests that the ball had crossed the line but referee Phil Dowd and assistant referee Andrew Garratt waved play on, with even a succession of replays proving inconclusive.

   2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport

5. figurativelytransitiveTo refuse to admit someone or accept something.

   The referee turned away the players' protests.

   2 more examples

   He was turned away at the border because he didn't have a valid visa.

   For heauen doth know (ſo ſhall the world perceiue) That I haue turn'd away my former Selfe, So will I thoſe that kept me Companie.

   c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 100

   Synonyms: turn back

6. figurativelytransitiveTo avert or ward off the occurrence or effects of.

   to turn away disaster

7. datedtransitiveTo dismiss from service.

   to turn away a servant

8. figurativelyintransitiveTo forsake or refuse an association or commitment.

   Turn away from a life of sin.

   3 more examples

   He turned away from his old comrades.

   She increasingly turned away from politics.

   Some people donate what they can, while others simply turn away.

   Synonyms: turn one's back