roundabout way
1
4.1
- noun
:
ruta indirecta
- When the highway was closed, we had no choice but to find a roundabout way to reach our destination.
- take a roundabout way
Examples
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He walked a roundabout way along the side of a disused quarry full of abandoned furniture oozing stuffing and springs.
Fiction book (1991) -
To avoid the construction on Main Street, we took a roundabout way through the neighborhood.
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Well, it certainly is a roundabout way to do it.
-
In a roundabout way, I guess it is.
-
As a matter of fact, he has already done that in a roundabout way.
Blog text (25) -
Last year I had to drive to Lakewood to talk with a client, and I went a roundabout way.
-
He took a roundabout way home.
Fiction book (1996) -
We find roundabout ways to ask for things so we can get things done, or so they aren't offended.
-
In the end, the Norwegians had to depend in a roundabout way on Swedish assistance to complete the transaction.
Academic text (1996) -
Ormston asks, and in a roundabout way, the information larded with commiseration, he learns of what has occurred.
Fiction book (1998)
Synonyms
83
3.0
A temporary route used when the usual road is blocked
9
3.8
Road built around a town or city to let traffic avoid its centre
An indirect way taken to avoid traffic or being seen
A longer, indirect way to go that avoids the direct road
How Indirect
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an indirect route taken to avoid an obstacle' is directly and compositionally derived from 'roundabout' (indirect, circuitous) + 'way' (route). This straightforward adjective+noun pattern is common in English and across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Roundabout way comes from the image of taking a wide circle to get past something blocking the road. You take a roundabout way that goes around the problem, so it means 'a longer or indirect route'.