to come full circle
20
5.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
volver al punto de partida
- After years of exploring new cities, I finally came full circle and returned to my hometown.
- we have come full circle now
So let's just come full circle again just to tie up all these loose ends.
- So let's just come full circle again just to tie up all these loose ends.
- So I'm afraid we've come full circle back to the pathology of politics.
- OK, I believe that my adventure has come full circle.
- And I had this moment when things kind of came full circle for me.
- And it's weird how stuff ends up coming full circle.
- You know, I think what we're doing is we're actually coming full circle now and saying, you know, cooking wasn't so bad.
- And what's very scary to me is we've now reached this point where things are kind of coming full circle.
- And so the, the incredible, you know, serendipity in Providence was that I came full circle.
- And what has been so satisfying is to, for it to come full circle and for her to feel that love and to see it first hand.
- I mean, look, it's it's almost come full circle because you, I think first came on to talk about the dangers of Prozac.
Examples
-
Now we have come full circle, and there are no easy answers here.
Academic text (2001) -
In a manner of speaking, we are coming full circle in healthcare.
Academic text (1994) -
And I had this moment when things kind of came full circle for me.
-
My journey has now come full circle.
-
And, before you knew it, life had come full circle.
-
The world history of energy appears to be coming full circle.
Academic text (1999) -
In a curious way, history has come full circle in the present day
Academic text (1996) -
Notice that we have come full circle in our investigation of this topic.
Academic text (2004) -
Politically, Turkey had come full circle since the days of the early Republic.
Academic text (2000) -
As MENC executive director, a position he assumed in April, he believes he has come full circle.
Academic text (2010)
Synonyms
∞
1.3
To return to how it was before
67
4.2
To go back to a previous state or way of doing things
18
4.4
To return to a topic later to talk about it
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression evokes a clear metaphor of a completed circular movement: 'come' (to move/return) combined with 'full' + 'circle' (a complete rotation back to the start) creates a figurative image of returning to an original state. However, this is a metaphorical extension rather than a purely compositional meaning, so a B1 learner who knows the words may guess the idea but not reliably derive the exact idiomatic sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Come full circle comes from the simple image of walking all the way around a circle and ending up back at the same place. So when something comes full circle today, it means it has 'returned to where it began' after many changes.