overturning

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of turning something over, or of reversing or canceling something that was previously established.

   A rogue wave caused the overturning of the ferry within seconds.

   The overturning of the lower court's ruling surprised legal observers.

   Similarreversal, capsizing, inversion

   Note

   As a true noun it can be counted and made plural. Jonathan Edwards, in his History of Redemption (before 1758), counts "three general overturnings" in the succession of the world's great monarchies. There the word names the overthrow of whole empires, the grandest scale the act can take, far from a capsized ferry or a reversed court ruling, yet built on the same idea of turning something established upside down.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of overturn.

   The court is overturning decades of established precedent.

   Overturning the conviction required compelling new forensic evidence.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it marks an action in progress (the court is overturning precedent). At the head of a phrase it works as a gerund (overturning the conviction). In both roles it keeps the verb's habit of taking a direct object, which is how to tell it from the noun for the act, which needs of. It carries every sense of overturn, from capsizing a boat to reversing a ruling.

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