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turn turtle
Idioms and Phrases
Capsize, turn upside down, as in When they collided, the car turned turtle . This expression alludes to the helplessness of a turtle turned on its back, where its shell can no longer protect it. [First half of 1800s]Example Sentences
“You look like a turned turtle!†she hooted.
“Everything turned turtle within a few hours,†he said.
There are baths too deep to get out of, so you have to turn turtle and push yourself up and out.
The Recreation turned turtle, casting some passengers into the water.
Before the world economy turned turtle in 2008, the European Union presented an attractive face to the world.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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