To cause a complete reversal of circumstances

His normally fidgety students were riveted when Moscow history teacher Andrei Popov turned the tables on the Russian Revolution. He told them that the 1917 Revolution, which had been taught for decades as a sacred event, was not so glorious as their government-issued textbooks had portrayed it

Gli studenti normalmente esagitati di Andrei Popov, professore di storia a Mosca, rimasero esterrefatti quando il loro professore capovolse la situazione sulla Rivoluzione Russa: disse loro che la Rivoluzione del 1917, che per decenni era stata considerata un evento sacro, non era poi stata così gloriosa come i libri governativi l'avevano rappresentata

The street gang was bullying the liquor-store owner, but the sudden arrival of the police turned the tables on them and he got them arrested

La gang di teppisti stava malmenando il proprietario del negozio di liquori, ma con l'arrivo della polizia la situazione si è rovesciata e il negoziante li ha fatti arrestare

When the pseudo-intellectual and snobbish writer finally met the press, reporters turned the tables on him and gave the author a taste of his own medicine by asking him absolutely dull and stupid questions

Quando lo scrittore pseudo-intellettuale e un po' snob acconsentì finalmente ad incontrare la stampa, i giornalisti decisero di rovesciare la situazione e di rendergli pan per focaccia facendogli domande assolutamente stupide e insulse

The phrase has been in use since the early 1600s and it seems to have originated from a popular card game in which a player, when at a disadvantage, might reverse the position of the board and thus shift the disadvantage to his adversary. An alternative explanation suggests that the expression goes back to the times when table-tops had two surfaces: one was smooth and was used for eating; the other one was rough and was used as a work-bench. So, if a visitor wasn't welcome, you could turn the rough surface uppermost