Volte-face

Quick meaning: Volte-face is a noun meaning A reversal of attitude, policy, or principle.

Meaning

A reversal of attitude, policy, or principle.

More Meanings

1. (literature, chiefly poetry) A dramatic change in mood or tone.

Example Sentences

Shakespeare often used volte-faces in the rhyming couplets at the end of his sonnets.

Psychoanalysis has sprung many surprises on us, performed more than one volte face before our indignant eyes.

For one-time advocates of unfettered globalisation, this volte-face has resulted in cognitive dissonance, because the new suite of policy proposals implies that longstanding rules of the international trading system will be bent or broken.

Then, on July 15, 1971, came Nixon's sudden announcement that Kissinger had just made a secret trip to Peking and that he himself had accepted Chou En-lai's invitation to visit the Chinese mainland sometime before May, 1972. This was instantly interpreted in chancelleries all over the world as a sign that the United States was about to execute a volte-face in its China policy.

Word Forms

• volte-faces

Synonyms for volte-face

Depending on context, synonyms include about-face, U-turn, reversal.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include reversal, about-face, turnaround, turnabout, renversement, right-about-face.

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