English
round
see also: Round
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) IPA: /ˈɹaʊnd/
Adjective

round (comparative rounder, superlative roundest)

  1. (physical) Shape.
    1. Circular or cylindrical; having a circular cross-section in one direction.
      We sat at a round table to make conversation easier.
    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. Lacking sharp angles; having gentle curves.
      Our child's bed has round corners for safety.
    4. Plump.
      • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
        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.
  2. Complete, whole, not lacking.
    The baker sold us a round dozen.
    • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Geraint and Enid
      Round was their pace at first, but slackened soon.
  3. (of a number) Convenient for rounding other numbers to; for example, ending in a zero.
    One hundred is a nice round number.
  4. (Phonetics) Pronounced with the lips drawn together; rounded.
  5. Outspoken; plain and direct; unreserved; not mincing.
    a round answer; a round oath
    • the round assertion
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, scene 3
      Sir Toby, I must be round with you.
  6. Finished; polished; not defective or abrupt; said of authors or their writing style.
    • In his satires Horace is quick, round, and pleasant.
  7. Consistent; fair; just; applied to conduct.
    • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Truth
      Round dealing is the honour of man's nature.
  8. Large in magnitude.
    a round sum
  9. (authorship, of a fictional character) Well-written and well-characterized; complex and reminiscent of a real person.
    Antonyms: flat
  10. (architecture) Vaulted.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

round (plural rounds)

  1. A circular or spherical object or part of an object.
    • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398 ↗:
      in labyrinth of many a round self-rolled
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0045 ↗:
      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, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
    • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors (William Golding), Faber and Faber 2005, p.50:
      All at once the sun was through, a round of dulled silver, racing slantwise through the clouds yet always staying in the same place.
  2. A circular or repetitious route.
    hospital rounds
    The guards have started their rounds; the prisoner should be caught soon.
  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.
    • , Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son
      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 Ogress's castle.
  6. A single individual portion or dose of medicine.
    • 2009, Patrick Condon, "Boy with cancer, mom return home", Associated Press, printed in Austin American-Statesman, 2009 May 26, page A4:
      Daniel underwent one round of chemotherapy in February but stopped after that single treatment, citing religious beliefs.
  7. One sandwich (two full slices of bread with filling).
  8. (arts) A long-bristled, circular-headed paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting.
  9. 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.
  10. (sports) 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.
    • April 19 2002, Scott Tobias, AV Club Fightville[http://www.avclub.com/articles/fightville,72589/]
      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 little to shake the label. Nor do the shots of ringside assistants with spray bottles and rags, mopping up the blood between rounds
  11. A stage, level, set of events in a game
    1. (sports) A stage in a competition.
      qualifying rounds of the championship
    2. (sports) In some sports, e.g. golf or showjumping: one complete way around the course.
    3. (video games) A stage or level of a game.
    4. (cards) The play after each deal.
  12. (engineering, drafting, CAD) A rounded relief or cut at an edge, especially an outside edge, added for a finished appearance and to soften sharp edges.
  13. A strip of material with a circular face that covers an edge, gap, or crevice for decorative, sanitary, or security purposes.
    All furniture in the nursery had rounds on the edges and in the crevices.
  14. (butchery) The hindquarters of a bovine.
  15. (dated) A rung, as of a ladder.
    • All the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, chapter 8
      The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case with swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of wood, so that at every step there was a joint.
  16. A crosspiece that joins and braces the legs of a chair.
  17. A series of changes or events ending where it began; a series of like events recurring in continuance; a cycle; a periodical revolution.
    the round of the seasons;  a round of pleasures
  18. A course of action or conduct performed by a number of persons in turn, or one after another, as if seated in a circle.
    • Women to cards may be compared: we play / A round or two; which used, we throw away.
    • The feast was served; the bowl was crowned; / To the king's pleasure went the mirthful round.
  19. A series of duties or tasks which must be performed in turn, and then repeated.
    • the trivial round, the common task
  20. A circular dance.
    • 1634 October 9 (first performance)​, [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: Printed [by Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864 ↗; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837 ↗:
      Come, knit hands, and beat the ground, / In a light fantastic round.
  21. Rotation, as in office; succession.
  22. A general discharge of firearms by a body of troops in which each soldier fires once.
  23. An assembly; a group; a circle.
    a round of politicians
  24. A brewer's vessel in which the fermentation is concluded, the yeast escaping through the bunghole.
  25. (archaic) A vessel filled, as for drinking.
  26. (nautical) A round-top.
  27. A round of beef.
Synonyms
  • (song with each subset starting at a different time) canon
  • (hindquarters of a bovine) rump
Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: pennello a testa tonda
  • Portuguese: pincel redondo
Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • French: tour
  • Portuguese: round
  • Russian: ра́унд
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Preposition
  1. (rare in US) Alternative form of around
    I look round the room quickly to make sure it's neat.
    • The serpent Error twines round human hearts.
Adverb

round (not comparable)

  1. Alternative form of around
    • 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. [...] In Four Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685 ↗:
Verb

round (rounds, present participle rounding; past and past participle rounded)

  1. (transitive) To shape something into a curve.
    The carpenter rounded the edges of the table.
    • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries
      Worms with many feet, which round themselves into balls, are bred chiefly under logs of timber.
    • some time after his death in 1719???, Joseph Addison, Dialogues Upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals
      The figures on our modern medals are raised and rounded to a very great perfection.
  2. (intransitive) To become shaped into a curve.
    • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
      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.
  3. (with "out") To finish; to complete; to fill out.
    She rounded out her education with only a single mathematics class.
    • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:
      We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.
  4. (intransitive) To approximate a number, especially a decimal number by the closest whole number.
    Ninety-five rounds up to one hundred.
  5. (transitive) To turn past a boundary.
    Helen watched him until he rounded the corner.
  6. (intransitive) 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. (transitive, baseball) To advance to home plate.
    And the runners round the bases on the double by Jones.
  8. (transitive) To go round, pass, go past.
  9. To encircle; to encompass.
    Synonyms: surround
    • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:
      The inclusive verge / Of golden metal that must round my brow.
  10. To grow round or full; hence, to attain to fullness, completeness, or perfection.
    • c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
      The queen your mother rounds apace.
    • 1849, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, OCLC 3968433 ↗, (please specify ):
      |||tr=|brackets=|subst=|lit=|nocat=1|footer=}}|}}
      So rounds he to a separate mind, / From whence clear memory may begin.
  11. (medicine, colloquial) To do ward rounds.
  12. (obsolete, intransitive) To go round, as a guard; to make the rounds.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      They […] nightly rounding walk.
  13. (obsolete, intransitive) To go or turn round; to wheel about.
Translations
  • Portuguese: arredondar
  • Russian: округля́ть
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: virar-se contra
Translations Verb

round (rounds, present participle rounding; past and past participle rounded)

  1. (intransitive, archaic or dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To speak in a low tone; whisper; speak secretly; take counsel.
  2. (transitive, archaic or dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To address or speak to in a whisper, utter in a whisper.
    • 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?"
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I.2.4.IV:
      Tiberius the emperor […] perceiving a fellow round a dead corse in the ear, would needs know wherefore he did so […]
Noun

round (plural rounds)

  1. (archaic or dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A whisper; whispering.
  2. (archaic or dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Discourse; song.
Round
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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