come full circle

1. When something “comes full circle,” it completes a cycle, returns to its beginnings: “The novelist's vision of human life has come full circle — from optimism to pessimism and back to optimism again.”

Idioms and Phrases

Also, go full circle . Complete an entire cycle; return to the original position or condition. For example, After a whole year of debate we have come full circle on this issue . Shakespeare may have originated this expression in King Lear (5:3): “The wheel is come full circle.” A 20th-century idiom with a similar meaning is what goes around comes around , as in I knew if I helped her now, she would help me later—what goes around comes around .

Example Sentences

Julio had come full circle and had returned to Cuba as a tourist in his own country.

From The Daily Beast

Of the Make-A-Wish Foundation children, he is the only person to have everything come full circle for him.

From The Daily Beast

By the time she withdrew from the race in June following the final primaries, her campaign had come full circle.

From The Daily Beast

With Beginners, which also stars Ewan McGregor, it seems Plummer has come full circle.

From The Daily Beast

As she embraces Barb's new church—with its feminist foundation—the audience sees that Sarah's journey has come full circle.

From The Daily Beast

So does the wheel come full circle and all our lives we are mythopoeists.

From Project Gutenberg

The wheel of understanding between Eglington and herself had come full circle, and there was an end.

From Project Gutenberg

The year had come full circle; it was time that Mutimer received another remittance from his anonymous supporter.

From Project Gutenberg

We had both come full circle these last few hectic weeks on Earth.

From Project Gutenberg

The hunters had become the hunted, the wheel had come full circle, and the woes of David Crawfurd were being abundantly avenged.

From Project Gutenberg