turn the tables

present singular third person turns the tables · participle present turning the tables · participle past turned the tables · past turned the tables · alternative turn tables

1. idiomaticTo reverse a situation, usually so that the advantage has shifted to the party which was previously disadvantaged.

   Don't think sorry's easily said / Don't try turning tables instead

   1982, Eric Woolfson, Alan Parsons, Eye in the Sky, performed by The Alan Parsons Project

   5 more examples

   Well, the tables are turned—the times are changed. A peaceful and unoffending man might have expected from a neighbour, now powerful in his turn, such protection when walking in the paths of the law, as all men, subjects of the realm, have a right to expect even from perfect strangers.

   1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 21

   "The tables are turned, my red friend!" said the hunter, coolly. "It's your life, not mine, this time!"

   1884, Horatio Alger, chapter 30, in Do and Dare

   That night, she took in my show. And then she turned the tables on me: she waited for me.

   1986, Rusty Brown, “Always Me”, in Marcy Adelman, editor, Long Time Passing: Lives Of Older Lesbians, page 149

   Since its conception, the European Union has been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world. But as the EU faces what Angela Merkel has called its toughest hour since the second world war, the tables appear to be turning.

   2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian

   The execution of Littlefinger is formal, although his trial admittedly gives us ample opportunity to appreciate the tables finally turning on the man who got the ball rolling on all this bloodshed.

   2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club