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Roundabout vs Crossroads - What's the difference?

roundabout | crossroads |

As nouns the difference between roundabout and crossroads

is that roundabout is a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island while crossroads is plural of lang=en.

As an adjective roundabout

is indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.

roundabout

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.
  • * 1896 , , From Whose Bourne , ch. 9:
  • [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.
  • * 1921 , , Indiscretions of Archie , ch. 17:
  • "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."
  • * 2001 Dec. 3, , " Rather Reports Another War," New York Times (retrieved 3 April 2014):
  • 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.
  • * 2011 , Golgotha Press (ed.), 50 Classic Philosophy Books , ISBN 9781610425957, (Google preview):
  • Descartes is compelled to fall back upon a curious roundabout argument to prove that there is a world. He must first prove that God exists, and then argue that God would not deceive us into thinking that it exists when it does not.
  • Encircling; enveloping; comprehensive.
  • * 1706 , , Of the Conduct of the Understanding , item 3.3:
  • 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.

    Derived terms

    * roundaboutly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, UK, New Zealand, and, Australia) A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island
  • (chiefly, British) A children's play apparatus, often found in parks, which rotates around a central axis when pushed.
  • A fairground carousel.
  • A detour
  • A short, close-fitting coat or jacket worn by men or boys, especially in the 19th century.
  • Derived terms

    * mini-roundabout

    Synonyms

    * (road junction) traffic circle, rotary

    See also

    * swings and roundabouts

    crossroads

    English

    Noun

    (head)
  • A place where one road crosses another; an intersection of two or more roads.
  • (by extension) A centrally located position
  • (by analogy) A decision point; a turning point or opportunity to change direction, course, or goal.
  • (nonstandard) A fork in the road.
  • * 2005 , Phil Nordyke, All American, all the way: the combat history of the 82nd Airborne , page 723:
  • The Company A commander, Captain Helmer, was at the crossroads where the road split, with the left fork leading to Udenbreth, when he saw a group of men coming toward him.
  • * 2010 , Raeanne Thayne, A Cold Creek Baby , page 199:
  • When she reached the crossroads where the trail split, one part of her yearned to head toward the lake.

    Quotations

    * * 2005 , Jake Logan, Slocum and the Sierra Madras Gold : *: The shiny wet black triangle at the crossroads of where her legs split. * 2010 , M. K. Hobson, The Native Star : *: When they came to a crossroads where the road split off into four cardinal directions, Stanton stood squinting up at the signpost for a long time.