"long way around" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "long ways around",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "long ways around"
      },
      "expansion": "long way around (plural long ways around)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see long, way, around."
      ],
      "id": "en-long_way_around-en-noun-qV45fTu1",
      "links": [
        [
          "long",
          "long#English"
        ],
        [
          "way",
          "way#English"
        ],
        [
          "around",
          "around#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "16 84",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 86",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 88",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1986, Frank Stella, Working Space, →ISBN, page 54:",
          "text": "Acknowledging Annibale Carracci is the long way around to Rubens, but it is the route of choice because Annibale so aptly exemplifies a nagging notion we have about the difficulty of looking at painting in general and individual paintings in particular.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Peter Seibel, Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, →ISBN, page 268:",
          "text": "That was the long way around of saying that I tend to use terribly crude debugging techniques with unsafe printfs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Jesse Ball, Silence Once Begun, →ISBN, page 182:",
          "text": "It seems that people think of simple ways to say things or know them, but I was always taking the long way around.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Robert W. Jenson, Stephen John Wright, Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics: Essays on God and Creation, →ISBN:",
          "text": "We often ask why God takes such long ways around to his stated objectives.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An indirect approach."
      ],
      "id": "en-long_way_around-en-noun-zJS4Pdv6",
      "links": [
        [
          "indirect",
          "indirect"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "long way around"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "long ways around",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "long ways around"
      },
      "expansion": "long way around (plural long ways around)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see long, way, around."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "long",
          "long#English"
        ],
        [
          "way",
          "way#English"
        ],
        [
          "around",
          "around#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1986, Frank Stella, Working Space, →ISBN, page 54:",
          "text": "Acknowledging Annibale Carracci is the long way around to Rubens, but it is the route of choice because Annibale so aptly exemplifies a nagging notion we have about the difficulty of looking at painting in general and individual paintings in particular.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Peter Seibel, Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, →ISBN, page 268:",
          "text": "That was the long way around of saying that I tend to use terribly crude debugging techniques with unsafe printfs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Jesse Ball, Silence Once Begun, →ISBN, page 182:",
          "text": "It seems that people think of simple ways to say things or know them, but I was always taking the long way around.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Robert W. Jenson, Stephen John Wright, Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics: Essays on God and Creation, →ISBN:",
          "text": "We often ask why God takes such long ways around to his stated objectives.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An indirect approach."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "indirect",
          "indirect"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "long way around"
}