round and round

English

Alternative forms

• around and around

Adverb

round and round (not comparable)

1. In a repeated circular motion.
   • 1807, Washington Irving, William Irving and James Kirke Paulding, “From the Mill of Pindar Cockloft, Esq. (Notes, by William Wizard, Esq.: Waltz)”, in Salmagundi, number VII:

     The whole economy of this dance consists in turning round and round the room in a certain measured step ; and it is truly astonishing that this continued revolution does not set all their heads swimming like a top ; but I have been positively assured that it only occasions a gentle sensation which is marvellously agreeable.

2. (figurative) Following the same course repeatedly in vain.
   • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 9 (“Town and Todgers’s”)”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:

     Instances were known of people who, being asked to dine at Todgers’s, had travelled round and round for a weary time, with its very chimney–pots in view ; and finding it, at last, impossible of attainment, had gone home again with a gentle melancholy on their spirits, tranquil and uncomplaining.

Derived terms

• argue round and round

Translations

in a repeated circular motion

German: immer wieder (um etwas) herum

(fig.) following the same course repeatedly in vain

German: herum (de)

References

• “round and round”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.