1644 J. Vernon Young Horse-man 17 Now if the enemie come on the Reere something inclining to the Right, you are to command to the right hand about face.]

1804 J. Cuninghame Tactic Brit. Army (ed. 2) 23 About Face... The whole face about, except the Light Infantry of the Second.

1858 F. B. Wilkie Davenport 44 To ‘cover’ was not in the manuel [sic]—to ‘about face’, and ‘quick time, march!’ to the boats, was.

1863 Southern Literary Messenger Jan. 57/1 The enemy was quick-witted enough to discern that Bragg was retiring; whereupon he about-faced and claimed a great victory.

1896 Catholic World Apr. 14 As soon as you perceive these conspicuous colors [of the skunk] in some bush, or in the dusk, you do not hesitate to about face and run.

1921 E. Ferber Girls xii. 240 Now, suddenly, Mrs. Payson had about-faced. Perhaps this in turn was as unconscious as her previous attitude had been.

1924 Scribner's Mag. July 36/1 Morrow got very white—about-faced, and marched out of the room.

1934 J. T. Farrell Young Manhood (1936) xv. 340 He about-faced and swam the crawl stroke back to the pool edge.

1967 Monumenta Nipponica 22 212 I about-faced and slowly walked along, searching the snowy road I had been over.

1995 High Country News 7 Aug. 14/3 They rapidly approached the fire, then suddenly about-faced when they felt the heat.

1861 S. Willard Let. 10 Nov. in C. A. Bartol Nation's Hour (1862) App. 42 There was nothing to be done but to about-face three thousand men and march 'em back again.

1888 Overland Monthly Aug. 179/2 The coaches were quickly about-faced and driven as fast as the teams could take them towards Devil's River.

1996 D. G. Martin Gettysburg July 1 (rev. ed.) v. 181 The command was about faced and marched under enemy fire ‘back over the position from which it last marched’.

1820 Mrs. Purcell Orientalist I. xiii. 241 Several groups had answered to the common questions of ‘who are you?’—‘turn about face’—when a party remasked advanced.

1851 Dublin Univ. Mag. Mar. 315/1 Then came ordhers [sic] to wheel about face and go back again.

1897 Times 13 Oct. 6/6 Persecute all who are opposed to you..go for them at every opportunity, until they either leave the club or turn about face and support the delegate.

1925 Jrnl. Farm Econ. 7 155 We would have turned about-face nearly completely in 1919 and 1920.

1991 A. Roddick Body & Soul vii. 154 But every now and then we had someone who got it all about face and thought her primary job was to love the world rather than to trade.

1995 Autocar 1 Mar. (Porsche Suppl.) 13/2 The engine was placed about-face in the tail to make it mid-engined, a classic racing layout still followed to this day.

1835 W. Scott Infantry-tactics I. 104 At the end of each formation, the company, by an about face, will be brought to its proper front.

1850 J. Weir Lonz Powers I. xviii. 194 They..sent to the about face and at double quick step the remainder of the yelling crew.

1864 I. V. D. Heard Hist. Sioux War 73 Marsh..ordered his men who were fronting the ferry to an about face.

1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 1 About Face, one of the facings in the school of the soldier, executed by facing to the rear, turning to the right.

1930 Liberty 6 Sept. 33/2 That's enough to make us do an about face and give it [sc. a car] the gas.

1955 J. P. Donleavy Ginger Man xxiii. 269 Sebastian at rigid attention. He did an about face. And another one. I'm on guard duty.

1991 J. Levesque Rosseter's Memory viii. 132 Robert crept down the stairs and hung a hard right toward the kitchen in search of a snack. The former Mrs. Reilly..spotted him before he could make an about-face.

1853 Charity & Clergy 166 Socially Christians must come to an ‘about face’! Instead of looking to those above them, in order that they may be lifted onward and upward, they must look backward upon those below them to see how they can help them upward and onward.

1899 Amer. Hist. Rev. 4 454 De Liniers advanced the ceremony of administering the oath of allegiance to Ferdinand by several days and began to abuse Napoleon. This about-face had no effect.

1934 Sun (Baltimore) 20 Sept. 2/1 (headline) Backers [of the Cotton Act] do an about face.

1959 Times 20 Feb. 8/2 If he did not mislead the Prime-Minister, his abrupt about-face was certainly disconcerting.

1992 New Republic 18 May 47/1 Morrison instead stages a manipulative about-face in the plot: Joe and Violet end up living happily ever after in a new and calm intimacy born of their troubles.

2005 K. MacNeil Stornoway Way 30 The weather has taken a customary about face.