around Robin Hood's barn
- idiom
- UK
:
dar la vuelta innecesariamente
- We ended up going around Robin Hood's barn before we finally found the right address.
Examples
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Instead of taking the shortcut, he drove around Robin Hood's barn and made us late.
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Her explanation went around Robin Hood's barn before she answered my question.
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Don't go around Robin Hood's barn just to get to the store.
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Why do you always take the long way around Robin Hood's barn?
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Instead of taking the shortcut, he drove around Robin Hood's barn and made us late.
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We ended up going around Robin Hood's barn before we finally found the right address.
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Why do you always take the long way around Robin Hood's barn?
Synonyms
7
3.7
To go by a longer route to avoid a blocked road
To talk or act in a long, roundabout way to avoid the main point
Antonyms
How Direct
Surface Forms
Morphology
around + Robin + Hood's + barn
The phrase contains a proper name ('Robin Hood') and a locative noun ('barn'), so a literal B1-level reading is 'around the barn belonging to Robin Hood.' The idiomatic meaning 'to take a long or unnecessarily indirect route' is not predictable from those constituents and relies on regional/idiomatic usage, so learners who only know the words would not reliably infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Around Robin Hood's barn may come from the image of people walking around a big barn called 'Robin Hood's barn' instead of taking a short path through the yard. That's why it now means 'to take a long or unnecessarily indirect route'.