喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a car that cannot drive straight through. Something round sits in the way, so the car has to go around it and come out on the far side. Everything this word covers keeps that same shape: you do not cut across, you travel round — sometimes literally in a circle, sometimes in the way you say a thing or the route you take to get there.

可以想成：一輛車沒辦法直直開過去，路中間有個圓的東西擋著，只好繞著它走一圈，再從另一邊出來。這個字的每一種用法都保留…更多收起可以想成：一輛車沒辦法直直開過去，路中間有個圓的東西擋著，只好繞著它走一圈，再從另一邊出來。這個字的每一種用法都保留這個形狀——不直接穿過去，而是繞著走。有時是真的在原地繞圈（圓環、旋轉木馬），有時是講話繞、路線繞，總之不走直線。

原始詞典資料11 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

roundaboutadj/ˈɹaʊndəˌbaʊt/

  • 1

    Indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.

    • [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.
    • "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."
  • 2

    Encircling; enveloping; comprehensive.

    • 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.

roundaboutnoun/ˈɹaʊndəˌbaʊt/

  • 1

    A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.

  • 2

    A horizontal wheel which rotates around a central axis when pushed and on which children ride, often found in parks as a children's play apparatus.

  • 3

    A fairground carousel.

  • 4

    A detour.

  • 5

    A short, close-fitting coat or jacket worn by men or boys, especially in the 19th century.

  • 6

    archaicA round dance.

roundaboutverb/ˈɹaʊndəˌbaʊt/

  • 1

    To play on a roundabout (carousel)

  • 2

    To travel round roundabouts

  • 3

    To talk in a roundabout, indirect manner

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。