Dictionary Definition
circuitous adj
1 marked by obliqueness or indirection in speech
or conduct; "the explanation was circuitous and puzzling"; "a
roundabout paragraph"; "hear in a roundabout way that her
ex-husband was marrying her best friend" [syn: roundabout]
2 deviating from a straight course; "a scenic but
devious route"; "a long and circuitous journey by train and boat";
"a roundabout route avoided rush-hour traffic" [syn: devious, roundabout]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
First attested in 1664. From circuitosus#Latin < circuitus#Latin < circumeo#Latin "I go around" < circum#Latin "around + eo#Latin "I go"Synonyms
- italbrac not direct: indirect
- italbrac of a winding route: roundabout
Translations
of a long and winding route
- Finnish: kiertelevä, kaarteleva
Translations to be checked
- ttbc French: tortueux
- ttbc Indonesian: tidak langsung, berputar-putar
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
O-shaped, aberrant, aberrative, ambagious, anfractuous, backhand, backhanded, circular, circumlocutional,
circumlocutory,
collateral, convolutional, deflectional, departing, desultory, deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, digressive, discursive, divagational, divergent, errant, erratic, excursive, flexuose, flexuous, helical, indirect, involute, involuted, involutional, labyrinthine, left-handed,
mazy, meandering, meandrous, oblique, orbital, out-of-the-way,
periphrastic,
planetary, rambling, rivose, rivulose, rotary, round, roundabout, roving, ruffled, serpentine, shifting, side, sidelong, sinister, sinistral, sinuate, sinuose, sinuous, snaky, spiral, stray, swerving, torsional, tortile, tortuous, turning, twisting, twisty, undirected, vagrant, veering, wandering, whorled, winding, wreathlike, wreathy, zigzag