Idiom idiom
turtle up
Meaning
To be defensive or hypervigilant; to adopt a defensive posture; to avoid conflict
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He tends to turtle up whenever we discuss his feelings.”
“When the boss started asking difficult questions, the employee began to turtle up and stopped answering.”
“Rather than engaging in the debate, the politician chose to turtle up, offering only vague, defensive responses to the reporter's inquiries.”
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Last updated August 10, 2026