From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishRelated topics: Roads, Outdoorroundaboutround‧a‧bout1 /ˈraʊndəbaʊt/ noun [countable] British English1TTRa raisedcircular area where three or more roadsjoin together and which cars must drive aroundSYN traffic circle American EnglishTurn left at the first roundabout. →mini-roundabout2DLOa roundstructure for children to play on in a park. Children sit on it while someone pushes it around and around.SYN merry-go-round American English3DLOa merry-go-round →swings and roundaboutsExamples from the Corpusroundabout• The site is approachable from the Bletchworth roundabout coming from Reigate, or the Dorking roundabout from the other direction.• Imagine you are approaching a busycomplexroundabout with six converging roads.• A road circled the site - an enormousroundabout that had once containedshops, pubs and a postoffice.• The accident happened on the old Wrexham road from Chester, near the Pulford roundabout.roundaboutroundabout2 adjective [only before noun]1AVOIDSAYa roundabout way of saying something is not clear, direct, or simpleSYN indirectOPP directroundabout way/fashionIt was a roundabout way of telling us to leave.2a roundabout way of getting somewhere is longer and more complicated than necessaryThe bus took a very long and roundabout route.Examples from the Corpusroundabout• The essence of cyclic structure is similarly straightforward though it is pursued in a distinctly roundaboutmanner.• The taxi driver took a roundaboutroute to the hotel.• Regarding himself, one fact emerged, in a roundabout way and with a purpose.• This isn't a roundabout way of asking you to marry me.• All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I lovemaps.• In a roundabout way, she admitted she was wrong.roundabout way/fashion• Maybe those teams knew something, in a roundabout way.• So we must set about it a more roundabout way.• Regarding himself, one fact emerged, in a roundabout way and with a purpose.• In a sort of roundabout way, he was fishing for information about her habits, and attitude to boys.• This isn't a roundabout way of asking you to marry me.• All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I love maps.• So there might be an advantage in working late and coming home a rather roundabout way, she reflected.• But in one rather roundabout way, the joke contains an element of truth.roundabout route• And artists are not the only ones to take a roundabout route.• This time they approached from across the fieldabove the bank, a roundabout route.• WindowWorks follows the most roundabout route for merging data from the database into a document.• Which he then sent off-planet, by various well-disguised and roundabout routes, to an unknownrecipient.• Finally, by the roundabout route, we reached St Paul's churchyard where we were to meet the boys.