1915 Boston Globe 16 Aug. 11/6 The Boston Elevated is to lay double tracks..for a line from Summer st along the viaduct to the Commonwealth Pier, thence down the ramp, crossing D st..and with a U turn coming back along Northern av.

1921 Diamond Drill (Crystal Falls, Michigan) 9 Apr. On top of the hill, after crossing the river, the driver swung off and made a U turn, the car being driven the last few rods of its journey parallel with the river bank.

1954 ‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom xvi. 232 The armoured car..made a sudden sweeping u-turn.

1963 A. Ross Australia 63 ii. 49 At weekends motor boats churn up the water and skiers make U-turns past the koala farm.

2000 T. Hall To Elephant Graveyard (2001) i. 10 Drivers overtook, undertook, did U-turns in the middle of moving traffic..and honked their horns incessantly.

2020 G. Taylor Paramedic's Tales (e-book ed.) iv I switched on our emergency lights, made a wide U-turn in the middle of the intersection and drove back up the other side of the street.

1929 Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Eagle-News 16 Mar. 3/5 ‘No U Turns’ will be the subject for the sermon by the Rev. Earl L. Douglass at the evening service tomorrow at 7:30 o’clock at the First Presbyterian Church.

1958 Harper's Mag. Nov. 88/1 88/1 After our 1946 interventionist fiasco in Argentina..the State Department executed an artless U-turn and began courting the Perón dictatorship at every opportunity.

1972 A. Roth Heath & Heathmen i. 16 One of the things which surprised even close observers was the ease with which Heath made a complete U-turn between his first rightwing, or Mark I phase of 1970–1, and his second, leftwing or Mark II phase of 1971–2.

2017 M. McCabe Two Closes & Referendum ii. 41 In a last minute U-turn the surviving tenements were saved from the wrecking balls and given a facelift.

1931 [implied in: Hayward (Calif.) Daily Rev. 3 Aug. 2/1 There should be a strict law against U-turning on a busy highway or on a busy street or street corner. (at U-turning n. and adj. at Derivatives)].

1935 Rhinelander (Wisconsin) Daily News 26 Nov. 1/5 [He] backed up, turned around on the slippery pavement, headed west on East Washington street, U-turned again and drove east to South Water street.

1958 R. Stout Champagne for One vii. 82 I do the driving, and I wanted one [sc. a car] I could U-turn when the occasion arose.

1986 D. Chávez Last of Menu Girls (1987) 149 Braulia would..peel out down the small street, u-turning midway in front of a passing car.

2000 Adv. Driving (Inst. Adv. Motorists) Summer 43/3 The system told me to ‘U-turn at the end of this road’, which was a perfectly safe and legal manoeuvre.

1973 Guardian 2 Aug. 7/7 The Government has U-turned to the opposite universalist extreme with its tax credits scheme.

1992 Independent 16 Jan. 17/5 They are glad the Government appears to have ‘U-turned’ from its disapproval of ‘trendy teaching methods’ and its disinclination to accept that there is link between expenditure and performance.

2009 Private Eye 27 Nov. 14/2 The people of Bradford have been betrayed by..English Heritage, which has U-turned over the merits of the Odeon.

1941 Pop. Mech. Sept. 62/1 Included in this foolhardy category are the U-turners, the crashers who ignore traffic circles and similar flow separators, and the line jumpers.

1973 Daily Tel. 15 July 15/3 Each may have respected the other's uncompromising quality of steel. In this consensus age of trimmers, re-negotiators and U-turners, it is indeed a rare attribute.

2014 Sunday Express (Nexis) 19 Oct. 34 I can't work with people who are ditherers or U-turners.

1931 Hayward (Calif.) Daily Rev. 3 Aug. 2/1 There should be a strict law against U-turning on a busy highway or on a busy street or street corner.

1936 Traffic Surv.: Hearings before Subcomm. Streets & Traffic of Comm. on District of Columbia (U.S. House of Representatives, 74th Congr., 2nd Sess.) 549 Six accidents: Two right-angle collisions, two pedestrians struck; one ‘U’ turning car struck; one turn from wrong lane.

1980 Guardian 11 Oct. 17/1 It made it difficult for a government to make sensible adjustments of policy for fear of being accused of U-turning.

2012 N.Y. Mag. 25 June 187 (advt.) Bicyclist collided with U-turning motorist.