turn one's back on someone
Meaning: To abandon or refuse to help someone.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The town didn't turn its back on the family after the fire.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Turning away shows refusal, and in battle it meant flight. The figurative phrase is found in English from the 16th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: volver la espalda — literally: to turn the back
More idioms — Body & Senses
- one's heart sinks — To feel sudden disappointment or dread.
- shoulder to shoulder — Side by side, working together.
- tread carefully — To act with great caution in a delicate situation.
- pull the other one — Said to someone telling an obvious lie.
- the heart of the matter — The most important part of an issue.
- rub salt in the wound — To make someone's pain or humiliation worse.
More English idioms
- have plenty left in the tank — To still have energy or resources in reserve.
- willy-nilly — Whether one wants it or not; also, in a disorganized way.
- make oneself scarce — To leave quickly, or to keep out of the way.
- no holds barred — With no rules or restraints.
- jump at the chance — To accept an opportunity eagerly and at once.
- a matter of life and death — Something of the greatest possible seriousness.
From our tongue twisters
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
- The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. — Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.