around and around

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around and around

1. Literally, in a circle. I've been walking around and around the parking lot, and I still can't find my car. Look at the ballerina twirling around and around!

2. In a circuitous, indirect fashion, without an end or satisfactory result. We've gone around and around with the insurance company, and they still haven't paid our claim.

round and round

Also, around and around. In circles, as in You've gone round and round with the same argument and we still have no solution. This idiom transfers moving in a circle to mental or verbal activities. [Second half of 1800s]

See also: and, round

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive ?

With a storyline that coils around and around itself until viewers may have trouble breathing, "Wish You Were Here" is the incandescent feature debut of helmet Kieran Darcy-Smith, and a rare kind of showcase for leads Joel Edgerton ("Warrior") and co-writer Felicity Price as a couple whose South Asian vacation comes back to haunt them.