Also with hyphen. [f. the verbal phr. turn about (TURN v. 65). See also TURN sb. 40, and turn-bout (TURN-).] The action or an act of turning about; one who or that which does this. a. The act of turning so as to face the other way. Also fig.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 48. By a turn-about the dressing is changed.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, cxxxviii. A moment’s horror; then quick turn-about On high-heeled shoe.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 25 March, 1/2. The strange turn-about in the attitude of some zealous people towards Russia.
† b. A disease causing cattle to turn round and round; gid. Also turn-about sickness, vertigo. Obs.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 610. The Turn-about and Murrain trouble Cattell.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Tournement, Tournement de teste, the turne-about sicknesse; a giddinesse, or dizzinesse.
† c. A winding; a ‘maze.’ Obs.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 604. The Iesuites ignorant of their owne mystery of iniquity, and strangers as it were in the giddy turn-about of their owne Cloisters.
† d. One who turns about or alters things; an innovator. Obs.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, II. (1693), 36. Our modern Turn-abouts cannot evince us, but that we feel we are best affected, when the great Mysteries of Christ are celebrated upon Anniversary Festivals.
† e. A double-barrelled gun. Obs. † f. A turnstile. Obs. g. A small steamer having the deadwood cut away astern, and an additional rudder fitted in the space thus made, to facilitate quick turning; also attrib. h. U.S. A ‘giant’s stride’ or merry-go-round.
1801. Sporting Mag., XVII. 159. A kind of double gun, known by the name of Turnabout.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 144. The turn-about or w[h]irlout gate is only necessary where a frequency of passage is required.
1885. Pall Mall G., 22 June, 3/1. The folly which led them [the Admiralty] to use a swift and finely lined turnabout, built by White, of Cowes, to carry cabbages and potatoes on board the vessels lying in Portsmouth Harbour.
1889. Harper’s Mag., Sept., 560/1. The high swings and the turnabouts; the tests of the strength of limb and lung.
1894. W. H. White, Man. Nav. Archit., xviii. (ed. 3), 652. In a considerable number of small vessels and torpedo-boats an arrangement of balanced rudders has been fitted…. This arrangement … is known as the ‘turn-about’ system. Ibid., 699. A second [gun-boat] … identical … except that the after deadwood had been cut away, and the ‘turn-about’ system applied.
