Meaning & use
overturn
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Meanings
verbtransitivelegal
To cancel or reverse an official decision, ruling or law.
Grammar: Takes an object such as a verdict: the court overturned the ban.
Patterns
- overturn a decision
- overturn a ruling
The appeals court overturned the conviction.
Parliament voted to overturn the law.
The referee's call was overturned after review.
verbtransitive
To turn something upside down or onto its side.
Grammar: Takes an object when someone flips it: overturn the table.
Patterns
- overturn something
The strong wind overturned several market stalls.
He overturned the bucket and sat on it.
Protesters overturned a police car.
verbintransitive
To fall over or capsize.
Grammar: No object; the thing itself falls: the boat overturned.
Patterns
- overturn in something
The small boat overturned in the rough sea.
The truck overturned on the icy road.
The canoe overturned, throwing us into the river.
verbtransitiveformal
To overthrow or destroy an established order or belief.
Grammar: Often with system, order or idea as the object.
Patterns
- overturn an idea
The discovery overturned centuries of belief.
The revolution overturned the old social order.
New evidence overturned the theory.
Word forms
| third person singular | overturns |
|---|---|
| past tense | overturned |
| past participle | overturned |
| -ing form | overturning |
Common combinations
- overturn a verdict
- The judges overturned the verdict on appeal.
- overturn a ruling
- The higher court may overturn the ruling.
- overturn a decision
- The board refused to overturn its decision.
- overturn a table
- He angrily overturned the table.
- overturn a conviction
- New DNA evidence helped overturn his conviction.
- overturned vehicle
- An overturned vehicle blocked the highway.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reverse
- Reverse is the general word for changing a decision to its opposite, while overturn is used especially for courts and rulings.
- quash
- Quash is formal legal language for officially canceling a decision.
- capsize
- Capsize is limited to boats turning over in water.
- upend
- Upend means to set something on its end or upside down, and has no legal use.
Opposites
Word family
- overturned adjective
- turned upside down or reversed
- overturning noun
- the act of reversing or flipping
- turnover noun
- the rate of replacing staff, or total sales
- overturnable adjective
- able to be reversed (rare)
Commonly confused: overturn or overthrow?
overturn vs overthrow
Overthrow is to remove a leader or government by force. Overturn is mostly about decisions or flipping things.
Practice
The higher court decided to ______ the lower court's ruling.
Choose one answer.
Overturn means to reverse an official ruling. Overhear, overdo and overtake have different meanings and do not take ruling as a natural object.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “overturn”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.