different between roundabout vs oblique

English

Etymology

round +? about

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?nd??ba?t/

Adjective

roundabout (comparative more roundabout, superlative most roundabout)

1. Indirect, circuitous, or circumlocutionary.
   • 1896, Robert Barr, 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, P. G. Wodehouse, 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, Jim Rutenberg, "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, (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.

2. Encircling; enveloping; comprehensive.
   • 1706, John Locke, 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

Translations

Noun

roundabout (plural roundabouts)

1. (chiefly Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and sometimes US) A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.
2. (chiefly Britain) 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. (archaic) A round dance.

Usage notes

• In North America, the use of roundabout varies by region. In some places traffic circle and rotary are more common.

Synonyms

• (road junction): traffic circle, rotary, rotunda (Philippines)
• (fairground ride): merry-go-round

Coordinate terms

• (road junction): pork chop island

Derived terms

• mini-roundabout
• what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts
• swings and roundabouts

Translations

See also

• swings and roundabouts

English

Etymology

From Middle French oblique, from Latin obl?quus (also spelled obl?cus) (“slanting, sideways, indirect, envious”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??bli?k/
• IPA^(key): /o??bli?k/
• (US military command) IPA^(key): /??b?laik/
• Rhymes: -i?k
• Hyphenation: ob?lique

Adjective

oblique (comparative obliquer, superlative obliquest)

1. Not erect or perpendicular; not parallel to, or at right angles from, the base

   Synonyms: aslant, askew, slanting, inclined
2. Not straightforward; obscure or confusing
3. disingenuous; underhand; morally corrupt
4. Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.
5. (botany, of leaves) Having the base of the blade asymmetrical, with one side lower than the other.
6. (botany, of branches or roots) Growing at an angle that is neither vertical nor horizontal.
7. (grammar) Pertaining to the oblique case (non-nominative).
8. (grammar, of speech or narration) Indirect; employing the actual words of the speaker but as related by a third person, having the first person in pronoun and verb converted into the third person and adverbs of present time into the past, etc.
9. (music) Employing oblique motion, motion or progression in which one part (voice) stays on the same note while another ascends or descends.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

oblique (plural obliques)

1. (geometry) An oblique line.
2. (typography) Synonym of slash ?/?.
   • 1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:

     Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

   • 1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20:

     Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.

3. (grammar) The oblique case.

Synonyms

• (typography): See slash

Derived terms

• oblique mark
• oblique stroke, stroke

Verb

oblique (third-person singular simple present obliques, present participle obliquing, simple past and past participle obliqued)

1. (intransitive) To deviate from a perpendicular line; to become askew;
2. (military) To march in a direction oblique to the line of the column or platoon; — formerly accomplished by oblique steps, now by direct steps, the men half-facing either to the right or left.
3. (transitive, computing) To slant (text, etc.) at an angle.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obl?quus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?.blik/

Adjective

oblique (plural obliques)

1. oblique

Derived terms

• barre oblique
• cas oblique

Verb

oblique

1. first-person singular present indicative of obliquer
2. third-person singular present indicative of obliquer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of obliquer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of obliquer
5. second-person singular imperative of obliquer

Further reading

• “oblique” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Adjective

oblique

1. feminine plural of obliquo

Latin

Adjective

obl?que

1. vocative masculine singular of obl?quus

References

• oblique in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• oblique in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• oblique in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette