turn the tide

1. 1.

   cause a complete reversal of the circumstances

   “The tables are turned now that the Republicans are in power!”

   Synonymsturn the tables

   Broaderchange by reversal

Questions about turn the tide

What does turn the tide mean?

turn the tide means "cause a complete reversal of the circumstances".

What is another word for turn the tide?

Close synonyms include turn the tables. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is turn the tide a common word?

turn the tide is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.