round

Adjective

round (comparative rounder or more round, superlative roundest or most round)

1. (physical) Of shape:
   1. Circular or cylindrical; having a circular cross-section in one direction.

      We sat at a round table to make conversation easier.

      • 1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Long-Expected Party”, in The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published September 1973, →ISBN:

        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.

   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 face, a round belly

      • 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.

   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.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 47:

     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.

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.
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 421:

     "Supposing somebody sees you, with all those flowers too? Supposing somebody writes him a letter? Ooooh!" (a pure round open Tamil O.)

5. Outspoken; plain and direct; unreserved; not mincing words.

   a round answer; a round oath

   • 1867, Matthew Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature:

     the round assertion

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 261, column 2:

     Sir Toby, I muſt be round with you.

   • 1925, Stanley John Weyman, “XXXVI Home”, in Queen's Folly:

     Well, she must be plain with him, round with him, while she must not betray her child.

6. Finished; polished; not defective or abrupt; said of authors or their writing style.
   • 1622, Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman:

     In his satires Horace is quick, round, and […] pleasant.

7. (obsolete) Consistent; fair; just; applied to conduct.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Truth”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Round dealing is the honour of man's nature.

8. Large in magnitude.
   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1854, Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste: Or, Transcendental Gastronomy‎, page 108:

     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.

9. (authorship, of a fictional character) Well-written and well-characterized; complex and reminiscent of a real person.

   Antonym: flat

10. (architecture) Vaulted.
11. Returning to its starting point.

    round trip, round journey, round walk

Noun

round (plural rounds)

1. A circular or spherical object or part of an object.
   • 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 […], →OCLC:

     in labyrinth of many a round self-rolled

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 6:

     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, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 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 prison guards have started their nightly rounds.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 257:

     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 uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.

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.
6. 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.

   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Retribution”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 594:

     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.

   • 1978, “Last Summer”, in Blondes Have More Fun, performed by Rod Stewart:

     I said I did impersonations would you like to see
     Turned around to buy her one more round

7. A single individual portion or dose of medicine.
   • 2009 May 26, Patrick Condon, "Boy with cancer, mom return home", Associated Press, printed in Austin American-Statesman, page A4:

     Daniel underwent one round of chemotherapy in February but stopped after that single treatment, citing religious beliefs.

8. (UK) One slice of bread.

   For breakfast I had two rounds of toast and a mug of tea.

9. One sandwich (two full slices of bread with filling).
10. (art) A long-bristled, circular-headed paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting.
11. 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.
13. (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.
    • 2002 April 19, Scott Tobias, “Fightville”, in The A.V. Club‎:

      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

15. 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.
       • 1981, Tom Hirschfeld, How to Master the Video Games, page 88:

         When the player uses one shell to complete a round within 50 seconds, it vanishes forever. At the end of two successful rounds, for instance, the player has only two shells to pick from during docking.

    4. (card games) The play after each deal.
16. (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.
17. 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.

18. (butchery) The hindquarters of a bovine.
19. (dated) A rung, as of a ladder.
    • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

      All the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise.

    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Pulpit”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 42:

      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.

20. A crosspiece that joins and braces the legs of a chair.
21. 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

    • 1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Love in Exile. Song X.] ‘On Life’s Long Round’.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 177:

      On life's long round by chance I found
      A dell impearled with dew,
      Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground,
      Lent to the earth heaven's native hue
      Of holy blue.

22. A course of action or conduct performed by a number of persons in turn, or one after another, as if seated in a circle.
    • c. 1732, George Granville, Women:

      Women to cards may be compar'd: we play
      A round or two; when us'd, we throw away.

    • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 437:

      […] the Feaſt was ſerv'd; the Bowl was crown'd;
      To the King's Pleaſure went the mirthful Round: […]

23. A series of duties or tasks which must be performed in turn, and then repeated.

    Synonym: routine

    • 1827, [John Keble], “Morning”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 4:

      The trivial round, the common task,
      Would furnish all we ought to ask; […]

24. A circular dance.
    • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; 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:

      Come, knit hands, and beat the ground,
      In a light fantastic round.

25. Rotation, as in office; succession.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

      A Cave […] ,
      Where light and darkness in perpetual round
      Lodge and dislodge by turns.

26. A general discharge of firearms by a body of troops in which each soldier fires once.
27. An assembly; a group; a circle.

    a round of politicians

28. A brewer's vessel in which the fermentation is concluded, the yeast escaping through the bunghole.
29. (archaic) A vessel filled, as for drinking.
30. (nautical) A round-top.
31. A round of beef.

Preposition

round

1. (rare in US) Alternative form of around

   I look round the room quickly to make sure it's neat.

   • 1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error:

     The serpent Error twines round human hearts.

2. (used postpositively, rare in US) Alternative form of around

   The farmer fed his cow hay all the year round.

Adverb

round (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of around
   • 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:

     The invitations were sent round accordingly.

   • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 6:

     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 be beautiful. And the train which had picked them at sunrise out of a waste of glaciers and hotels was waltzing at sunset round the walls of Verona.

Verb

round (third-person singular simple present rounds, present participle rounding, simple past and past participle rounded)

1. (transitive) To shape something into a curve.

   The carpenter rounded the edges of the table.

   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     Worms with many feet, which round themselves into balls, are bred chiefly under logs of timber.

   • 1726, [Joseph Addison], Dialogues Upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals. […], [London], →OCLC, page 165:

     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[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:

     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; see also round out.

   She rounded out her education with only a single mathematics class.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     We are such stuff
     As dreams are made on, and our little life
     Is rounded with a sleep.

4. (transitive, intransitive) 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. (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.
   • 2011 March 2, Andy Campbell, “Celtic 1 - 0 Rangers”, in BBC‎:

     Diouf rounded Zaluska near the byeline and crossed but Daniel Majstorovic headed away and Celtic eventually mopped up the danger.

9. To encircle; to encompass.

   Synonym: surround

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

      The queen your mother rounds apace.

    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLIV, page 67:

      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.

11. (medicine, colloquial) To do ward rounds.
12. (obsolete, intransitive) To go round, as a guard; to make the rounds.
    • 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, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

      They […] nightly rounding walk.

13. (obsolete, intransitive) To go or turn round; to wheel about.

See also

• 'round

Verb

round (third-person singular simple present rounds, present participle rounding, simple 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.
   • 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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     rounded in the ear

   • c. 1617, David Calderwood (quoted as saying to King James VI)

     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?"

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], chapter I, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 4, member 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.