round and round

• around and around

round and round (not comparable)

1. 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.

   • 1955 January, Charles E. Lee, “The Glasgow Underground Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 24:

     Eventually, the railway opened on Monday, December 14, 1896, with a universal fare of 1d. collected at the turnstiles, and conditions were immediately chaotic, as many passengers travelled round and round, and refused to leave the cars.

2. (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.

• argue round and round

• “round and round”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.