long way around

plural long ways around

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see long, way, around.
2. An indirect approach.

   We often ask why God takes such long ways around to his stated objectives.

   2014, Robert W. Jenson, Stephen John Wright, Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics: Essays on God and Creation, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   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.

   1986, Frank Stella, Working Space, →ISBN, page 54

   That was the long way around of saying that I tend to use terribly crude debugging techniques with unsafe printfs.

   2009, Peter Seibel, Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, →ISBN, page 268

   It seems that people think of simple ways to say things or know them, but I was always taking the long way around.

   2014, Jesse Ball, Silence Once Begun, →ISBN, page 182