# circle back
## English
### Etymology

Alluding to physically making a circle to order to return to one's starting point (as in sense 3).

### Verb

circle back (third-person singular simple present circles back, present participle circling back, simple past and past participle circled back)
* (intransitive, idiomatic) To return to a previous location or state; to come back to.
    I have to circle back to the office to pick up a few things.
** 2019 December 2, Lauren Beale, “Elvis Presley's Palm Springs honeymoon home circles back on the market”, in Los Angeles Times‎, archived from the original on 2020-02-28:Well, a Palm Springs property known as Elvis Presley's honeymoon retreat has circled back on the market at $3.2 million – the same price as early this year.
** 2020 February 19, Laura Lippman, “The NYT Spelling Bee Gives Me L-I-F-E”, in Slate‎, archived from the original on 2022-10-27:My goal is to hit "Amazing" by 7 a.m., which allows me to circle back to the puzzle all day, pick, pick, picking until I hit "Genius."
** 2022 August 31, Sarah Harrison Smith, quoting Sara Horowitz, “Striking a Work-Life Balance”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 2022-06-17:We eat dinner at 6 every day. I'm not proud of this, but I circle back to my work after dinner to get done what I need to do.
* (intransitive, idiomatic, corporate jargon) To return to a previous topic of discussion; to bring up again.
    We're out of time right now, but we can circle back on this tomorrow.
** 2018 August 17, Catherine E. Shoichet, quoting Lee Gelernt, “The US deported hundreds of parents without their kids. Should those parents be brought back?”, in CNN‎, archived from the original on 2022-10-06:It seems the phone numbers may be inoperative and some people may be in hiding, so I think we're going to be circling back with the government to check those numbers.
** 2018 December 17, Marshall Shepherd, “The Meteorology Of Life-Threatening Waves Along The U.S. West Coast”, in Forbes‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-06:I will circle back to the meteorology of this event in a moment.
** 2022 May 26, Tess Owen, “Police Left Texas Shooter in a Classroom Full of Kids for About an Hour and Refuse to Say Why”, in VICE‎, archived from the original on 2022-07-22:"We will circle back on that" was all Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety had to say at a press conference Thursday when asked what, exactly, police were doing between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. while an armed man was inside an elementary school classroom killing children.
* Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see circle,‎ back.
** 2019 September 19, “Into the blue yonder: Bald eagle soars away after rehab stay”, in CBC News‎, archived from the original on 2017-05-09:When it was released from its cage Monday, the bird gracefully circled back, almost in a half moon, before disappearing into the sky.

#### Usage notes

* Often considered to be clichéd or even passive-aggressive.

#### See also

* close the loop

### References

* ↑ Daniel Bukszpan (2014 April 8) “Clichéd business jargon that everyone should stop using”, in CNBC‎, archived from the original on 2022-08-20
* ↑ Alice Murphy (2022 July 22) “The 'passive-aggressive' corporate email phrases that are driving us crazy - and what people REALLY mean when they use them”, in The Daily Mail‎, archived from the original on 2020-08-17

### Further reading

* “circle back”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “circle back” (US) / “circle back” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.