circle back
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: circles back
form: circling back
form: circled back
form: circled back
Etymology: Alluding to physically making a circle to order to return to one's starting point (as in sense 3).
Senses: examples: text: I have to circle back to the office to pick up a few things.
text: 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.
ref: 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 28 Feb 2020:
text: 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."
ref: 2020 February 19, Laura Lippman, “The NYT Spelling Bee Gives Me L-I-F-E”, in Slate, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2022:
text: 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.
ref: 2022 August 31, Sarah Harrison Smith, quoting Sara Horowitz, “Striking a Work-Life Balance”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 17 Jun 2022:
glosses: To return to a previous location or state; to come back to.
examples: text: We're out of time right now, but we can circle back on this tomorrow.
text: 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.
ref: 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 06 Oct 2022:
text: I will circle back to the meteorology of this event in a moment.
ref: 2018 December 17, Marshall Shepherd, “The Meteorology Of Life-Threatening Waves Along The U.S. West Coast”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2022:
text: “Breathe a minute. Relax. Say the magic words: you need to take a beat, and then you'll circle back.”
ref: 2020, Samantha Jayne, “Surviving the Office” (1:20 from the start), in Quarter Life Poetry, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Samantha Jayne (Samantha Jayne):
text: "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.
ref: 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 22 Jul 2022:
qualifier: corporate jargon
glosses: To return to a previous topic of discussion; to bring up again.
examples: text: When it was released from its cage Monday, the bird gracefully circled back, almost in a half moon, before disappearing into the sky.
ref: 2019 September 19, “Into the blue yonder: Bald eagle soars away after rehab stay”, in CBC News, archived from the original on 09 May 2017:
glosses: Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see circle, back.
Related terms: close the loop