flip the script

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

flip the script (third-person singular simple present flips the script, present participle flipping the script, simple past and past participle flipped the script)

1. (Canada, US, informal) To reverse a situation, especially by doing something unexpected.

   Synonym: turn the tables

   • 2003, Deborah Gregory, The Cheetah Girls: Livin' Large!, page 405:

     Some people walk with a panther or strike a buffalo stance that makes you wanna dance. Other people flip the script on the day of the jackal that'll make you cackle.

   • 2008, Brian Peterson, Move Over, Girl: A Novel, page 63:

     But sometimes she'd flip the script and come out with some tight shit on, turning that magnetic strength up to full power.

   • 2010, Inkwell, Children in the Belly of the Beast: Breeding Ground for Social Pathology, page 148:

     We need to flip the script and start showing that same level of compassion and love toward each other, and perhaps we will then gain respect and control over our communities.

   • 2011, Adrianne Byrd, King's Promise, page 94:

     And we're not talking about me. We're talking about you. What's with you Kings? You're always trying to flip the script on me.

   • 2022 June 2, A. O. Scott, “Are the Movies Liberal?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     I know there are exceptions, and I’m not trying to flip the script and reveal the reactionary face of Hollywood, though it’s true that in the years of the Production Code (from the mid-’30s until the late ’60s), Hollywood upheld a fairly conservative vision of American life.