put the/(one's) clock(s) back

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put the/(one's) clock(s) back

To adjust the time on one's clock(s) back by one hour to account for the end of daylight saving time. Don't forget to put your clock back tonight. I hate having to put the clocks back every autumn, it's such an antiquated custom.
See also: back, put

put/turn the ˈclock back

return to the past; return to old-fashioned ideas, customs, etc: Sometimes I wish I could turn the clock back to my days as a student. ♢ These new restrictions on medical research will undoubtedly put the clock back (by) 20 years.
See also: back, clock, put, turn
References in periodicals archive ?
Then came the first real moment when we all looked at our watches and asked: "Has someone put the clocks back more than one hour?
The dodgy doctor and a case of bad timing
We will stay on BST |through the summer and until the last Sunday in October (October 25) when it's time to put the clocks back again.
Summer Time is going to be wet and windy
Daylight saving time ended on Sunday when we put the clocks back an hour
THE BIG QUESTION; Madeuthink
What this city needs, but strongly disagree with the council trying to build on green belt land in Keresley Giovanni Randino I had to visit George Eliot Hospital with an infected arm while on holiday from Australia and have told everyone how well I was treated Barbara Bradwell I was born and brought up in Coventry, it is nothing like it was Marilyn Montgomery In this day and age there's NO reason to put the clocks back David Krawczyk
Tweets & Posts
Jitendra Mistry, 28, IT consultant, London: I think it's good they put the clocks back.
Your say: Should the clocks still be going back?
Every year we put the clocks back at the end of October to make lighter mornings.
Cars: Land Rover lacks power
There he asks Frank Dyson, the current Astronomer Royal (Alec McCowen), if he can put the clocks back in working order.
`LONGITUDE' IS A REAL CLASSIC, BY ANY MEASURE
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