turn back the clock

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to return to an earlier time, state of affairs, or set of conditions; the phrase is used both to express a wish to undo recent events or changes and, more critically, to accuse someone of trying to reverse social or political progress; it is also used literally in the context of daylight saving time; the impossibility of literally turning back a clock makes the idiom poignant when used to describe irreversible losses or the futile longing for a past that cannot be recovered