Meaning
The balance of a long-running situation is shifting, usually for the better after a difficult period; the reversal is under way rather than completed. Common in political, sporting and economic commentary about wars, campaigns, epidemics and slumps. Journalistic and cautiously optimistic; speakers reach for it precisely because the reversal is not yet complete. Regional use: General English.
Origin
This is the progressive form of the older idiom 'turn the tide', which takes the sea's reversal of flow and applies it to the course of events. 'Tide' itself originally meant time or season in Old English before narrowing to the sea's rise and fall in the 14th century, and the ebb-and-flow metaphor for fortune grew out of that. Idiom references note that although the metaphor is centuries old, the precise fixed phrases crystallised only in the first half of the 19th century; the progressive form adds the specific sense that the shift is happening now and gathering force. Heavy use in 20th-century war and election reporting fixed it as a journalist's staple for the moment an entrenched trend begins to reverse.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- the tide has turned
- the tide turned
- the tides are turning
- turning of the tide
Usage Examples
- Six months after the reforms, ministers insisted the tide was turning on child poverty.
- For three quarters the team was outplayed, but the tide was turning by the final minute.
- Sales figures suggest the tide is turning for the High Street after two bleak winters.