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Roundabout vs Zigzag - What's the difference?

roundabout | zigzag | Related terms |

Roundabout is a related term of zigzag.


As an adjective roundabout

is indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.

As a noun roundabout

is (chiefly|uk|new zealand|and|australia) a road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.

As a proper noun zigzag is

a small town in oregon.

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

    zigzag

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a line or path that proceeds by sharp turns in alternating directions
  • one of such sharp turns

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Moving in, or having a zigzag.
  • *
    • between two spears of rock, directly in line with his position, showed a zigzag crack that at night would let through the gleam of sky.

    Verb

  • To move or to twist in a zigzag manner.
  • *
    • At the base this vent was dark, cool, and smelled of dry, musty dust. It zigzagged so that he could not see ahead more than a few yards at a time.

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • in a zigzag manner or pattern

    • References

    English reduplications English refractory feminine rhymes ----