round

A circular or spherical object or part of an object.

Adjective

  1. Of shape:
    • We sat at a round table to make conversation easier.
    • The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians^([sic]) trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows. - 1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A...

    1. Circular or cylindrical; having a circular cross-section in one direction.

    2. Spherical; shaped like a ball; having a circular cross-section in more than one direction.

      • The ancient Egyptian demonstrated that the Earth is round, not flat.

    3. Loosely or approximately circular.

      • a round belly
      • a round face
      • If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon. - 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

    4. Lacking sharp angles; having gentle curves.

      • Our child's bed has round corners for safety.

    5. Plump.

      • He was tall and thin but his wife was short and round.
  2. Complete, whole, not lacking.
    • The baker sold us a round dozen.
    • Round was their pace at first, but slackened soon: / A stranger meeting them had surely thought, / They rode so slowly and they look'd so pale, / That each had suffer'd some exceeding wrong. - 1859, Alfred Tennyson,...
  3. Convenient for rounding other numbers to; for example, ending in a zero.
    • One hundred is a nice round number.
  4. Pronounced with the lips drawn together; rounded.
    • "Supposing somebody sees you, with all those flowers too? Supposing somebody writes him a letter? Ooooh!" (a pure round open Tamil O.) - 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972,...
  5. Outspoken; plain and direct; unreserved; not mincing words.
    • a round answer
    • a round oath
    • the round assertion - 1867, Matthew Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature:
  6. Finished; polished; not defective or abrupt; said of authors or their writing style.
    • In his satires Horace is quick, round, and[…]pleasant. - 1622, Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman:
  7. Consistent; fair; just; applied to conduct.
    • Round dealing is the honour of man's nature. - 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Truth”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
  8. Large in magnitude.
    • I have a good banker in this city, but I would not wish to draw upon the house until the time when I shall draw for a round sum. - 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans,...
    • By raising turkeys the farmers were able the more surely to pay their rents. Young girls often acquired a very sufficient dowry, and towns-folk who wished to eat them had to pay round prices for them. - 1854,...
  9. Well-written and well-characterized; complex and reminiscent of a real person.

    Antonyms: flat

  10. Vaulted.
  11. Returning to its starting point.
    • round trip, round journey, round walk

Origin

From Middle English round, rounde, from Old Northern French roünt, rund, Old French ront, runt, reont ( > French rond), from both Late Latin retundus and the original Latin rotundus. The noun developed partly from the adjective and partly from the corresponding French noun rond. Doublet of rotund.

Forms

round round more round most round rounder roundest around ron

Synonyms

circular cylindrical discoid spherical rounded plump rotund complete entire whole

Related

Acton Round

Derived

all-round Boston round bottle English round hand enround half-round nonround obround roundabout round angle roundarm roundback roundball round-bottomed flask round bracket round character round clam round dance round dozen round-ear round-eared tube-nosed bat rounded vowel rounden rounders roundeye

Adverb

  1. Alternative form of around.
    • The invitations were sent round accordingly. - 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:
    • They travelled for thirteen hours down-hill, whilst the streams broadened and the mountains shrank, and the vegetation changed, and the people ceased being ugly and drinking beer, and began instead to drink wine and to...

Forms

around ron

Derived

howl-round roundabout round and round turnround whip-round wrapround wrap-round

Noun Entry 3

  1. A circular or spherical object or part of an object.
    • in labyrinth of many a round self-rolled - 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey...
    • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. [...] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now,...
    • All at once the sun was through, a round of dulled silver, racing slantwise through the clouds yet always staying in the same place. - 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 50:
  2. A circular or repetitious route.
    • hospital rounds
    • The prison guards have started their nightly rounds.
    • Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as...
  3. A general outburst from a group of people at an event.
    • The candidate got a round of applause after every sentence or two.
  4. A song that is sung by groups of people with each subset of people starting at a different time.
  5. A serving of something; a portion of something to each person in a group.
    • They brought us a round of drinks about every thirty minutes.
    • There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her...
    • I said I did impersonations would you like to see Turned around to buy her one more round - 1978, “Last Summer”, in Blondes Have More Fun, performed by Rod Stewart:
  6. A single individual portion or dose of medicine.
    • Daniel underwent one round of chemotherapy in February but stopped after that single treatment, citing religious beliefs. - 2009 May 26, Patrick Condon, "Boy with cancer, mom return home", Associated Press, printed in...
  7. One slice of bread.
    • For breakfast I had two rounds of toast and a mug of tea.
  8. One sandwich (two full slices of bread with filling).
  9. A long-bristled, circular-headed paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting.
  10. A firearm cartridge, bullet, or any individual ammunition projectile. Originally referring to the spherical projectile ball of a smoothbore firearm. Compare round shot and solid shot.
  11. One of the specified pre-determined segments of the total time of a sport event, such as a boxing or wrestling match, during which contestants compete before being signaled to stop.
    • And though Fightville, an MMA documentary from the directors of the fine Iraq War doc Gunner Palace, presents it more than fairly, the sight of a makeshift ring getting constructed on a Louisiana rodeo ground does...
  12. A stage, level, set of events in a game

    (sports) A stage in a competition.

    • qualifying rounds of the championship

Forms

rounds around ron

Synonyms

canon rump

Antonyms

fillet

Hyponyms

catch

Derived

all round American round baton round clear round conscience round counterround cutround down round eco round elimination round eye of round flat round get rounds half-round in the round lightning round live round midround milk round multiround newspaper round newsround overround paper round

Noun Northern England, Scotland

  1. A whisper; whispering.
  2. Discourse; song.

Origin

From Middle English rounen, from Old English rūnian (“to whisper, talk low, talk secrets, consipre, talk secretly”), from Proto-Germanic *rūnōną (“to talk secrets, whisper, decide”), *raunijaną (“to investigate, examine, prove”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)rewə-, *(e)rwō- (“to trace, find out, look out”). Cognate with Scots roun (“to converse with in whispers, speak privately”), Middle Low German rūnen (“to whisper”), Middle Dutch ruinen (“to whisper”), German raunen (“to whisper, murmur”), Old English rūn (“whisper, secret, mystery”), Swedish röna (“to meet with, experience”). More at rune.

Forms

rounds around ron

Preposition

  1. Alternative form of around.
    • I look round the room quickly to make sure it's neat.
    • The serpent Error twines round human hearts. - 1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error:

    1. Alternative form of around.

      • The farmer fed his cow hay all the year round.

Forms

around ron

Derived

ask round bat round bet round bring round call round cast round close round come round cut round dig round drop round fuck round get round get round to go round go round with hand round hang round knock round look round pass round pull round put round putz round

Verb Entry 6

  1. To shape something into a curve.
    • The carpenter rounded the edges of the table.
    • Worms with many feet, which round themselves into balls, are bred chiefly under logs of timber. - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A...
    • The figures on our modern medals are raiſed and rounded to a very great perfection. - a. 1720 (date written), [Joseph Addison], “Dialogue III. A Parallel between the Ancient and Modern Medals.”, in Dialogues upon the...
  2. To become shaped into a curve.
    • The girl's figure, he perceived, was admirably proportioned; she was evidently at the period when the angles of childhood were rounding into the promising curves of adolescence. - 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt,...
  3. To finish; to complete; to fill out; see also round out.
    • She rounded out her education with only a single mathematics class.
    • We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  4. To approximate (a number, especially a decimal number) by the closest whole number, or some other close number, especially a whole number of hundreds, thousands, etc.; see also round down, round up.
    • The exact amount was $101.65, but we rounded it to $100.
    • 95.9 rounds to 96.
  5. To turn past a boundary.
    • Helen watched him until he rounded the corner.
  6. To turn and attack someone or something (used with on).
    • As a group of policemen went past him, one of them rounded on him, grabbing him by the arm.
  7. To advance to home plate.
    • And the runners round the bases on the double by Jones.
  8. To go round, pass, go past.
    • Diouf rounded Zaluska near the byeline and crossed but Daniel Majstorovic headed away and Celtic eventually mopped up the danger. - 2011 March 2, Andy Campbell, “Celtic 1 - 0 Rangers”, in BBC:
  9. To encircle; to encompass.
    • The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow. - c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...

    Synonyms: surround

  10. To grow round or full; hence, to attain to fullness, completeness, or perfection.
    • The queen your mother rounds apace. - c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • So rounds he to a separate mind ⁠From whence clear memory may begin, ⁠As thro’ the frame that binds him in His isolation grows defined. - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward...
  11. To do ward rounds.
  12. To go round, as a guard; to make the rounds.
    • They […] nightly rounding walk. - 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […],...

Forms

rounds rounding rounded around ron

Related

'round

Derived

overround round down round in round off round on round out round to round up round upon underround unround

Verb Northern England, Scotland

  1. To speak in a low tone; whisper; speak secretly; take counsel.
  2. To address or speak to in a whisper, utter in a whisper.
    • rounded in the ear - c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • The Bishop of Glasgow rounding in his ear, "Ye are not a wise man," […] he rounded likewise to the bishop, and said, "Wherefore brought ye me here?" - c. 1617, David Calderwood (quoted as saying to King James VI)
    • Tiberius the emperor […] perceiving a fellow round a dead corse in the ear, would needs know wherefore he did so […] - 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], chapter I, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […],...

Forms

rounds rounding rounded around ron