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What is "volte-face"

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volte-face
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
volte-face
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ By the end of the year, though, he appeared to have performed a volte-face.
▪ One is the difficulty of explaining Hastings' apparent volte-face.
▪ This explains the miraculous volte-face that took place in 1868.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
volte-face

a reversal of opinion, 1819, French (17c.), from Italian volta faccia, literally "turn face," from volta, imper. of voltare "to turn" (from Vulgar Latin *volvita, from Latin volvere "to roll;" see volvox) + faccia (see face).

Wiktionary
volte-face

n. a reversal of policy, attitude or principle

WordNet
volte-face

n. a reversal in attitude or principle or point of view; "an about-face on foreign policy" [syn: about-face, reversal, policy change]

Wikipedia
Volte-face

Volte-face ( or ) is a total change of position, as in policy or opinion; an about-face.

The expression comes through French, from Italian voltafaccia and Portuguese volte face, composed of volta (turn) and faccia (face).

In the context of politics a volte-face is, in modern English, often referred to as a U-turn or a flip-flop in the UK and the US respectively.

Usage examples of "volte-face".

He declared at first that he had paid the hundred thousand livres with his own money but when reminded of his various bankruptcies, the claims of his creditors, and the judgments obtained against him as an insolvent debtor, he made a complete volte-face, and declared he had borrowed the money from an advocate named Duclos, to whom he had given a bond in presence of a notary.