withturnen

withturnen

Middle English

Etymology

From with- +‎ turnen.

Verb

withturnen (third-person singular simple present withturneth, present participle withturnende, simple past and past participle withturned)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To turn around; turn back or away.
   • 1563, Mirror for Magistrates:

     But God of Justyce had withturnd that fate, Which where hit ought, lyght on hys proper pate.

2. To be converted.
   • 1470, Thomas Mallory, quoted by Barbara W. Tuchman in Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour:

     In that account Joseph, “by fortune come unto thys lande that at that time was called Grete Bretayne,” was able to “disheryt” a “grete felon paynim” who ruled the country, and “after that all the people withturned to the Crystyn feythe.