English

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Noun

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right-about-face (plural right-about-faces)

  1. Synonym of about-face

Verb

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right-about-face (third-person singular simple present right-about-faces, present participle right-about-facing, simple past and past participle right-about-faced)

  1. Synonym of about-face
    • 1930, Henri Barbusse, “On Leave”, in Great First World War Stories, London: Chancellor Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 470:
      So we right-about-faced and started back again, stumbling as if we were boozed, slipping, puffing, splashing, and bespattering ourselves. One of the boys cried to me through the wind and rain: 'We'll go back with you as far as your home, all the same. As we've nowhere to go we've plenty of time.'

Adverb

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right-about-face (comparative more right-about-face, superlative most right-about-face)

  1. Synonym of about-face
    • 1958, Pierre Berton, Klondike: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush, London: W. H. Allen, published 1960, pages 210–211:
      The urge to reach the Klondike had become a habit more than an obsession, and when at last on June 30 they walked glumly down the gangplank at Dawson most of them turned right-about-face and went home again.

References

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