Cause a complete reversal? Canute was unable to (4,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
turn the tide
'cause a complete' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'reversal? canute was unable to' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'reversal?' could be 'turn' (reversal is a kind of turn) and 'turn' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for turn the tide that I've seen before include "Reverse the course of events" , "Reverse general trend of events" .)