Roundabout

Quick meaning: Roundabout is an adjective meaning Indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.

Meaning

Indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.

More Meanings

1. Encircling; enveloping; comprehensive.
2. A fairground carousel.
3. A detour.
4. A short, close-fitting coat or jacket worn by men or boys, especially in the 19th century.
5. (archaic) A round dance.
6. (chiefly UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Australia and sometimes US, especially New England) A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.
7. (chiefly British) A horizontal wheel which rotates around a central axis when pushed and on which children ride, often found in parks as a children's play apparatus.

Example Sentences

[S]he fled, running like a deer, doubling and turning through alleys and back streets until by a very roundabout road she reached her own room.

Mr. Rather flew to the area in a roundabout fashion, first landing in Bahrain, from there flying to Islamabad and then heading to Kabul by land.

"Really, Bill, I think your best plan would be to go straight to father and tell him the whole thing.—You don't want him to hear about it in a roundabout way."

The third sort is of those who readily and sincerely follow reason, but for want of having that which one may call a large, sound, roundabout sense, have not a full view of all that relates to the question.

Word Forms

• roundabouts
• roundabouting
• roundabouted

Synonyms for roundabout

Depending on context, synonyms include rotary, rotunda, island, merry-go-round, devious, circle.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include circuitous, rotary, devious, whirligig, carousel, merry-go-round.

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