detouring

verb

present participle of detour
1
as in bypassing
to avoid by going around we had to detour the construction zone in order to get to the stadium

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in deviating
to change one's course or direction we had to detour for a few miles around the section of highway under construction

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of detouring Carriers started detouring away from Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. — Leslie Josephs, CNBC, 13 Oct. 2026 Westbound lanes of Interstate 80 were closed Sunday near Colfax, with traffic detouring through Secret Town, following a diesel spill from a semi-tanker. — Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 24 May 2026 All eastbound trips near the intersection were detouring as delays were expected, and students at Golden Valley and Bowman high schools were moved to different pick-up points. — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026 Brown apologized for detouring off-topic again. — Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2026 Both Ball and Norman danced around the question, detouring to talk about everything from the First Amendment, partnerships among local law enforcement agencies, chronic staffing issues, possession of body cameras and protesters' right to record and report after an incident. — Claudia Levens, jsonline.com, 19 Feb. 2026 No detouring from the course that has got them to this point. — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 19 Jan. 2026 For three months, the party scouted out a path across the desert, frequently detouring around impassable canyons and mountains. — Mike Bezemek, Outside, 29 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detouring
  1. bypassing
  2. deviating
  3. avoiding
  4. turning
  5. circumventing
  6. veering
Verb
  • Giulia eventually entered through the back door, inadvertently bypassing the cameras Conor had set up to capture her reaction.
    — Alexandra Macon, Vogue, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The developer had planned to build a 27-story tower with 111 luxury condos, but earlier this year added workforce housing under the Live Local Act, effectively bypassing local density and height restrictions.
    — Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of bypassing
Verb
  • The complication shows the moon phases for both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, with a 135-tooth driving wheel that drastically enhances accuracy, deviating by just one day every 122 years.
    — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 26 Sep. 2026
  • But maybe a line between North and South Carolina, between Tennessee and Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi then deviating south to divide Louisiana and Arkansas.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 7 Sep. 2026
Definition of deviating
Verb
  • Her style is pithy and blunt, avoiding the ornate sentence structure of classical German.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • However early the experiment might be, the launch is a milestone for an emerging technology that has the potential to help meet AI’s growing demand for compute while avoiding the constraints on resources like power, water, and land on Earth.
    — Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of avoiding
Verb
  • The Dome, with its spatial sound and vibrations, seemed to help create the conditions for turning my attention inward.
    — Jessica Sulima, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Oct. 2026
  • If this trajectory continues, those proportions will only grow, with red states turning maximally red and blue states maximally blue.
    — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of turning
Verb
  • Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, prisons were a way of circumventing the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.
    — Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The then-head of the bank also was arrested for allegedly circumventing procedures in releasing the money to the charity.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of circumventing
Verb
  • Some are veering to the right by mirroring GOP positions, like transgender exclusion from school sports.
    — Dorian Rhea Debussy, The Conversation, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The hurricane appeared to be veering away from the dense refining region in southern Louisiana near New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
    — Spencer Kimball, CNBC, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of veering

Browse Nearby Words

detoured
detouring
detours
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Detouring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detouring. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of syncretic

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 16
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All