roundabout way

The incident that spurs the meeting provides the fulcrum of the drama at the center of “Armand,” but it’s never seen, only discussed, in indirect, roundabout ways by the teachers, more bluntly by the parents.

“I guess I knew that in some roundabout way. But I was not reading, you know, the trades.”

The team repeated the experiment with another group and asked people about their conspiracy-theory beliefs in a more roundabout way.

That seems a roundabout way of Hurzeler saying he keeps his feet on the ground.

On Monday, it was finally — somewhat — settled, in a roundabout way.