Idiom: What goes around comes around

[nitikasnv]

Hi,

What comes around goes around and what goes around comes around is same.

Meaning:used to say that if you are bad and not kind, bad things will happen to you, and if you are good and kind, good things will happen to you

ex: 'He ended up with nobody looking after him.' 'Well, what goes around comes around.'

Thanks

[almanaghi2008@yahoo.com]

i think it means that as you do somthing you get the same

[Majeste]

In Turkish, "Ne ekersen, onu biçersin.". :)

People have to take care of something they do, before they don't do it. If they do it, they can face some problems.

[magimagicE]

Think of a bad penny (unit of currency, usually a coin). If you put one into circulation then it will eventually come back to you.

I usually associate the saying "What goes around comes around" with rumours.

If you start a nasty rumour about someone then, eventually, you yourself will become the subject of a nasty rumour (or you will bear the consequences of it). When this happens, the victim of the first (original) rumour can say to the offender, with a degree of satisfaction, "What goes around comes around".

However, depending on context, this saying can have positive as well as negative connotations. And, it is very similar to the proverb that MW stated above.


"What comes around goes around" holds a different meaning to me. I often hear it used in conversation with the meaning "to respond in kind": "An eye for an eye,...".

[joyjoy]

I argued with my friend about this sentence. I quite agree with you. But my friend said: It may be go around, after a circle, it will come back but in a high level. That means, all of its skill, ability ... are higher like a spiral. What do you think about his interpretation? I really do not convince him.

[digitS']

It is difficult to respond to ideas about Karma (destiny).

If an act is simply on the level of response to the environment, I don't suppose that there is necessarily a "spiral upward" of action and response, just as there would not necessarily be a spiral downward.

If the element of intention plays in, then I suppose that it may well strengthen the act.

Responding "in kind" or "an eye for an eye" certainly brings in intention and raises the seriousness of the action.

We can all easily play the victim. It is a role that is such an effective tactic. It allows a justification to how we treat others. Often, that justification is inconsistent with how we wish others to treat us. The psychologists call this cognitive dissonance. The results are likely to be tragic.

As Mohandas Gandhi observed, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

Steve

[Ripley7700]

I have mainly heard this as "what goes around comes around" in the USA. The first and ONLY time I have heard "what comes around goes around" is with the Manhattan clothes designer of that name. If you think about the difference between the meanings of "go around" and "come around", this makes sense. "Comes around" means to return or turn around, or even to "come back full circle." For example, if you disagree with someone, and she eventually changes her mind, she is said to have "come around" to your idea. "Goes around" does not have the same "return" or "turn" connotation, at least to me as a native English speaker. So, to have the meaning that someone will eventually experience what he does to other people (as in karma), it should be "what goes around comes around" and not "what comes around goes around." I don't think most people in the USA would notice if you used both. I would, though! I am not an English teacher, so this opinion is based on my experience in speaking and not on a text book or dictionary.