detour

Borrowed from French détour, from détourner (“turn away”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.tʊə(ɹ)/, /ˈdiː.tɔː(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.toɹ/

detour (plural detours)

1. A diversion or deviation from one's original route.
   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     On the third day I made a detour westward to avoid the country of the Band-lu, as I did not care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo.

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 29:50 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     Of course the Johnston swings around to engage the entire flotilla, and, despite taking several more hits, Johnston successfully forces away the first two ships, which leads to the entire squadron taking a detour to avoid the single pugnacious ship.

2. (programming) The diversion of the flow of execution for debugging or similar purposes.

• bypass
• roundabout

detour (third-person singular simple present detours, present participle detouring, simple past and past participle detoured)

1. (intransitive) To make a detour.
   • 1988 April 9, Elizabeth Pincus, “Freedom Ride Supports Southern Les/Gay Visibility”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

     Petrelis detoured away from southern activities to visit Chicago and help draw attention to lesbian, gay and AIDS issues during the Illinois primary March 16.

2. (transitive) To direct or send on a detour.

• Drouet, douter, redout, routed, toured

detour

1. Alternative form of dettour