round and round

round and round (not comparable)

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.
(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.

in a repeated circular motion

(fig.) following the same course repeatedly in vain

English