overturned

IPA/ˌəʊ.vəˈtɜːn/
KK[ˈovɚtˌɚnd]IPA/ˌoʊ.vɚˈtɝːn/

overturned — verb

  • overturnedpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • overturneds3rd person singular
  • overturneding-ing form
  • overturnededpast simple

1. to flip something so that its top side ends up underneath, or for something to f

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

to flip something so that its top side ends up underneath, or for something to flip in this way by itself; usually said of vehicles, boats, or pieces of furniture.

Example

A truck overturned on the highway near Imran's office during the storm.

intransitive: [vehicle] + overturn

Élise accidentally overturned a bowl of soup while reaching for the salt.

transitive: overturn + [container of liquid]

Common collocations
  • overturn a vehicle
  • overturn a boat
  • overturn a table
  • winds overturn
  • accidentally overturn
Synonyms
  • tip over

    more informal; emphasises the moment of losing balance

  • capsize

    specific to boats; not used for cars or land vehicles

  • topple

    tall standing object (statue, lamp) falls over, not always flipped upside-down

Antonyms
  • right

    to put something back the correct way up after it has overturned

  • upright

Grammar Patterns

overturn + [object]

[subject] + overturn

Usage Note

Subject of the intransitive use is almost always a vehicle, vessel, or piece of furniture — not a person.

Common Mistakes

Cyrus overturned on his bicycle.
Cyrus fell off his bicycle.
people do not 'overturn'; only vehicles or objects do.

2. for a higher court or governing body to cancel an earlier court decision, verdic

2.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

for a higher court or governing body to cancel an earlier court decision, verdict, or law, declaring that it should no longer apply.

Example

The supreme court overturned the lower court's decision after reviewing new DNA evidence.

typical subject: higher court

Dahlia spent twelve years in prison before an appeals judge overturned her conviction.

overturn + a conviction

Common collocations
  • overturn a verdict
  • overturn a conviction
  • overturn a ruling
  • overturn a ban
  • overturn a law
Synonyms
  • reverse

    interchangeable in legal contexts; slightly broader use outside law

  • quash

    more formal British legal usage; emphasises wiping the conviction off the record

  • strike down

    specific to courts cancelling a law as unconstitutional

Antonyms
  • uphold

    for a court to confirm and keep the earlier decision in place

  • affirm

    formal legal opposite — to support the earlier ruling on appeal

Grammar Patterns

overturn + [decision/verdict/conviction/law]

Usage Note

Subject is usually an institution — a court, judge, panel, or legislature — never an individual citizen.

Common Mistakes

I overturned my parking ticket.
I appealed my parking ticket and got it cancelled.
only courts or panels overturn rulings; individuals appeal or challenge them.

3. in a UK election, to take away a sitting politician's winning lead and beat them

3.verbtransitiveC2
Definition

in a UK election, to take away a sitting politician's winning lead and beat them, often by a surprisingly large swing of votes.

Example

The new Labour candidate overturned a Conservative majority of nearly four thousand votes.

overturn + a [party's] majority

Valentina overturned the sitting MP's lead in a constituency nobody expected her party to win.

subject: challenger candidate

Common collocations
  • overturn a majority
  • overturn a lead
  • overturn a deficit
  • overturn the seat
Synonyms
  • unseat

    remove a sitting politician from office through election

  • topple

    more dramatic; suggests bringing down a long-established figure

Antonyms
  • hold

    for a candidate or party to keep the seat they already had

Grammar Patterns

overturn + [candidate's] + majority

Usage Note

Distinct from sense 2 (legal): here the object is always a 'majority', 'lead', 'seat', or 'deficit' in an electoral contest, not a court ruling.

Common Mistakes

Hao overturned the president in the election.
Hao overturned the president's majority in the election.
the object is the lead or margin, not the person.

overturned — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

These four words all describe an object losing its upright position, but each has a typical scene. 'Overturn' is the most general — a car overturns, a table overturns, a bowl overturns — and it works in both transitive and intransitive uses (the storm overturned the boat / the boat overturned). 'Capsize' is narrower: it almost always refers to boats or ships rolling over in water, and sounds strange used of land vehicles. 'Tip over' is informal and emphasises the moment of imbalance just before the fall; you say a toddler tipped over a cup of juice. 'Topple' suggests something tall losing balance and crashing down — a statue, a stack of books, a regime — rather than flipping upside down. So: the ferry capsized, the wine glass tipped over, the lamp toppled, and the truck overturned all describe slightly different physical events.

overturn ↗capsize ↗tip overtopple ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

  • completely overturn
  • accidentally overturn
  • narrowly overturn

Phrases

  • overturn on appeal
  • vote to overturn

Prepositions

  • overturn on appeal
  • overturn in court

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishModern English

Built from the prefix 'over-' (meaning 'across' or 'completely') plus the verb 'turn' (from Old English 'tyrnan', meaning to rotate). The literal flipping sense is the oldest — Middle English writers used it for capsizing carts and boats from the 1300s. The legal 'cancel a decision' sense developed later, by analogy: a ruling is 'turned over' the way an object is.