different between winding vs roundabout

English

Etymology 1

From wind +? -ing, from wind (“to wrap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wa?nd??/

Verb

winding

1. present participle of wind

Noun

winding (countable and uncountable, plural windings)

1. Something wound around something else.
2. The manner in which something is wound.
3. One complete turn of something wound.
   • 1966, Cynthia Ozick, Trust, New York: The New American Library, Part One, Chapter 7, p. 44,^[1]

     […] my mother’s pale arms emerged from the windings of her sheets and flailed in the air […]

4. (especially in the plural) Curving or bending movement, twists and turns.
   • 1610, John Healey, The City of God by Augustine of Hippo, London: George Eld, Book 13, p. 680,^[2]

     The Labyrinth] A building so entangled in windings and cyrcles, that it deceiueth all that come in it.

   • 1706, William Congreve, The Double Dealer, London: Jacob Tonson, Act I, Scene 1, p. 9,^[3]

     […] in vain I do disguise me from thee, thou know’st me, know’st the very inmost Windings and Recesses of my Soul.

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Penguin, 2018, Chapter 2, p. 88,^[4]

     The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain.

   • 1849, Charlotte Brontë, letter cited in Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857, Volume 2, Chapter ,^[5]

     Eugene Forcarde, the reviewer in question, follows Currer Bell through every winding, discerns every point, discriminates every shade, proves himself master of the subject, and lord of the aim.
5. (electrical) A length of wire wound around the core of an electrical transformer.
6. (music, lutherie, bowmaking) Lapping.

Translations

Adjective

winding (comparative more winding, superlative most winding)

1. Twisting, turning or sinuous.
2. Spiral or helical.

Translations

Etymology 2

From wind +? -ing, from wind (“movement of air”), as the wind was used to assist turning.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?nd??/

Verb

winding

1. present participle of wind

Noun

winding (countable and uncountable, plural windings)

1. The act or process of winding (turning a boat etc. around).

Derived terms

• winding hole

Anagrams

• dwining

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