robin

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around Robin Hood's barn

A long, indirect route. A: "What took you guys so long to get here?" B: "Well, rather than just going through town, our esteemed driver took us all around Robin Hood's barn instead!"

go around Robin Hood's barn

To take a long, indirect route. A: "What took you guys so long to get here?" B: "Well, rather than just going through town, our esteemed driver went around Robin Hood's barn instead!"

round robin

1. In sports, a tournament in which all participants must face everyone else in successive turns. Hyphenated if used as a modifier before a noun. Because we had an odd number of teams, we decided to make the tournament a round robin. There will be four round-robin competitions, with the winner of each one going into a final bracket on Sunday.

2. A document signed in a circle around the edges to mask the order of the signatures (so that a leader of the message cannot be identified). Employees opposing the move have decided to send a round robin to management outlining their protest.

all around Robin Hood's barn

going somewhere by an indirect route; going way out of the way [to get somewhere]; by a long and circuitous route. We had to go all around Robin Hood's barn to get to the little town.

round robin

1. A petition or other document signed by several persons in sequence, so that no one can tell who was the first to sign it. For example, We decided to send a round robin to management to protest the new rules about work hours . This term originally referred to a grievance presented by seamen to their captain, called round because of the circular sequence of names, but the source of robin has been lost. [Early 1700s]

2. In sports, a tournament in which each player or team plays against all of the others in turn. For example, The club always holds a tennis round robin on the Fourth of July. [Late 1800s]

round Robin Hood's barn

by a circuitous route.

Robin Hood is the semi-legendary English medieval outlaw reputed to have robbed the rich and helped the poor. In this expression, Robin Hood's barn represents an out-of-the-way place of a kind that might be used by an outlaw or fugitive such as Robin Hood. Recorded from the mid 19th century, the phrase seems to have originated in the dialect speech of the English Midlands, the area in which Robin Hood is said to have operated.

a ˌround ˈrobin

a letter of protest, etc. that has been signed by many people in such a way that no single person can be blamed or punished for sending it: Did you sign that round robin that was sent to the manager this week?This comes from the navy. Originally it was a letter of protest in which the signatures were written in a circle so that nobody could see who had signed it first.