indirect

indirect, circuitous, roundabout are comparable when applied to ways, routes, or means with the meaning not leading by a straight path to a destination or goal.

Indirect basically implies departure from the straight and short line between two points

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by what bypaths and indirect crooked ways I met this crown— Shak.

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In its extended uses indirect implies following a course that is not plain, obvious, explicit, or straightforward

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Jane's mother was making indirect but perfectly legitimate inquiries into his prospects— Mary Austin

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indirect taxation

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we have seen grow up ... a whole new family of subtle, indirect influences— Kefauver

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man's possible development from non-Homo stock, must be based upon indirect evidence— R. W. Murray

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Circuitous implies not only indirection but usually a winding and, because of its length, slow way or course

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they were forced to take a circuitous route on account of the floods

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two lines possible—the one direct by sea, the other circuitous through Gaul— Mahan

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paths . . . more circuitous, but not less sure duly to reach the point marked out by Heaven— Wordsworth

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in speech and in action most Japanese are indirect and circuitous— Buchanan

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Roundabout may be used interchangeably with circuitous, but specifically it implies a following of a more or less circular or semicircular course from one point to another; the term more often than indirect or circuitous, especially in its extended use, implies deliberate, often blameworthy evasion or avoidance of the direct course or way

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take a roundabout course to one's destination

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a roundabout explanation

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the roundabout, diffident appeal for pity— Day Lewis

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she declared that she would have nothing to do with any roundabout ways, but go openly and instantly to law— Burney

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Analogous words: devious, oblique, *crooked: *winding, sinuous, tortuous

Antonyms: direct: forthright, straightforward