Variations
- go round in circles
- go around in circles
- run around in circles
- rush around in circles
Meaning
- to waste energy and time engaging in aimless, trivial, or futile activities.
- to be highly active but achieve minimal results.
- to work at something but continuously fail to make advancement with it.
- going nowhere.
- to proceed aimlessly or indecisively.
- a fruitless endeavor.
- being in the middle of a pointless thing and you need to stop doing it.
- work at something but keep failing to make progress with it.
Example Sentences
- I attempted to draft an outline for my thesis. However, my ideas were so mixed up in a confused way that I kept going around in circles.
- The committee spent the entire afternoon attempting to create a new PR proposal, but they just ran around in circles.
- I dislike attending management meetings because they usually last a few hours and the conversations tend to go around in circles.
- Please assist me to compile my itinerary. I have never been to the United States before, and I'm running around in circles trying to choose the areas to visit.
- The chairman failed to moderate the conversation well, and the hearing, therefore, went around in circles.
- The menu has many great choices. I keep running around in circles regarding the food to order.
- We conversed for almost three hours, but the discussion ran around in circles. We failed to make a decision.
- We must have a list of items to discuss next time since our talks appear to always run round in circles.
- We've been running around in circles, attempting to obtain the information we need, but nobody will inform us of anything.
- James has established many businesses, but none of them has succeeded. He keeps running around in circles.
- In the absence of adequate data, the surveyors are just going round in circles.
Origin
The idiom dates from the first half of the 20th century. The phrase comes from the nature of foot races. It appears in Pursuit of a Parcel, a mystery novel written by Patricia Wentworth which was first published in 1942. She wrote about how a character had been rushing around in circles.
