Pronunciations (6)
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/ˈɹaʊ̯nd/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ɹʊnd/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
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/ɹuːnd/
Pronunciation notes
- Northumbria
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/ˈɹaʊ̯nd/
Pronunciation notes
- Canada
- General-American
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/ˈɹæʊ̯nd/
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/ˈɹaːnd/
Adjective
Of shape: Circular or cylindrical; having a circular cross-section in one direction.
Usage- physical
- Examples
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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.
Of shape: Spherical; shaped like a ball; having a circular cross-section in more than one direction.
Usage- physical
- Examples
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The ancient Egyptian demonstrated that the Earth is round, not flat.
Of shape: Loosely or approximately circular.
Usage- physical
- Examples
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a round belly
a round face
More examples (1)
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.
Of shape: Plump.
Usage- physical
- Examples
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He was tall and thin but his wife was short and round.
Complete, whole, not lacking.
- Examples
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The baker sold us a round dozen.
More examples (1)
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.
Convenient for rounding other numbers to; for example, ending in a zero.
Usage- of a number
- Examples
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One hundred is a nice round number.
Pronounced with the lips drawn together; rounded.
- Examples
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"Supposing somebody sees you, with all those flowers too? Supposing somebody writes him a letter? Ooooh!" (a pure round open Tamil O.)
Outspoken; plain and direct; unreserved; not mincing words.
- Examples
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a round answer
a round oath
More examples (3)
the round assertion
Sir Toby, I muſt be round with you.
Well, she must be plain with him, round with him, while she must not betray her child.
Finished; polished; not defective or abrupt; said of authors or their writing style.
- Examples
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In his satires Horace is quick, round, and[…]pleasant.
Consistent; fair; just; applied to conduct.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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Round dealing is the honour of man's nature.
Large in magnitude.
- Examples
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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.
More examples (1)
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.
Well-written and well-characterized; complex and reminiscent of a real person.
Usage- of a fictional character
- Antonyms
Vaulted.
Returning to its starting point.
- Examples
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round trip, round journey, round walk
Noun
A circular or spherical object or part of an object.
- Examples
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in labyrinth of many a round self-rolled
More examples (1)
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.
All at once the sun was through, a round of dulled silver, racing slantwise through the clouds yet always staying in the same place.
A circular or repetitious route.
- Examples
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hospital rounds
The prison guards have started their nightly rounds.
More examples (1)
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.
A general outburst from a group of people at an event.
- Examples
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The candidate got a round of applause after every sentence or two.
A song that is sung by groups of people with each subset of people starting at a different time.
Usage- Countable
A serving of something; a portion of something to each person in a group.
- Examples
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They brought us a round of drinks about every thirty minutes.
More examples (1)
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.
I said I did impersonations would you like to see Turned around to buy her one more round
A single individual portion or dose of medicine.
- Examples
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Daniel underwent one round of chemotherapy in February but stopped after that single treatment, citing religious beliefs.
One slice of bread.
Usage- UK usage
- Examples
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For breakfast I had two rounds of toast and a mug of tea.
One sandwich (two full slices of bread with filling).
A long-bristled, circular-headed paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting.
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.
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.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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
A stage, level, set of events in a game A stage in a competition.
- Examples
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qualifying rounds of the championship
A stage, level, set of events in a game In some sports, e.g. golf or showjumping: one complete way around the course.
A stage, level, set of events in a game A stage or level of a game.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A stage, level, set of events in a game The play after each deal.
A rounded relief or cut at an edge, especially an outside edge, added for a finished appearance and to soften sharp edges.
A strip of material with a circular face that covers an edge, gap, or crevice for decorative, sanitary, or security purposes.
- Examples
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All furniture in the nursery had rounds on the edges and in the crevices.
The hindquarters of a bovine; a round of beef.
A rung, as of a ladder.
Usage- Dated
- Examples
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All the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise.
More examples (1)
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.
A crosspiece that joins and braces the legs of a chair.
A series of changes or events ending where it began; a series of like events recurring in continuance; a cycle; a periodical revolution.
- Examples
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the round of the seasons a round of pleasures
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.
A course of action or conduct performed by a number of persons in turn, or one after another, as if seated in a circle.
- Examples
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Women to cards may be compar'd: we play ¶ A round or two; when us'd, we throw away.
[…]the Feaſt was ſerv'd; the Bowl was crown'd; To the King's Pleaſure went the mirthful Round: […]
A series of duties or tasks which must be performed in turn, and then repeated.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask; […]
A circular dance.
- Examples
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Come, knit hands, and beat the ground, In a light fantastic round.
Rotation, as in office; succession.
- Examples
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A Cave[…], Where light and darkness in perpetual round Lodge and dislodge by turns.
A general discharge of firearms by a body of troops in which each soldier fires once.
An assembly; a group; a circle.
- Examples
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a round of politicians
A brewer's vessel in which the fermentation is concluded, the yeast escaping through the bunghole.
A vessel filled, as for drinking.
Usage- Archaic
A round-top.
Verb
To shape something into a curve.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The carpenter rounded the edges of the table.
Worms with many feet, which round themselves into balls, are bred chiefly under logs of timber.
More examples (1)
The figures on our modern medals are raiſed and rounded to a very great perfection.
To become shaped into a curve.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To finish; to complete; to fill out; see also round out.
Usage- with "out"
- Examples
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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.
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.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Examples
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The exact amount was $101.65, but we rounded it to $100.
95.9 rounds to 96.
To turn past a boundary.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Helen watched him until he rounded the corner.
To turn and attack someone or something (used with on).
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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As a group of policemen went past him, one of them rounded on him, grabbing him by the arm.
To advance to home plate.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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And the runners round the bases on the double by Jones.
To go round, pass, go past.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Diouf rounded Zaluska near the byeline and crossed but Daniel Majstorovic headed away and Celtic eventually mopped up the danger.
To encircle; to encompass.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow.
To grow round or full; hence, to attain to fullness, completeness, or perfection.
- Examples
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The queen your mother rounds apace.
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.
To do ward rounds.
Usage- Colloquial
To go round, as a guard; to make the rounds.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- Examples
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They […] nightly rounding walk.
To go or turn round; to wheel about.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
Verb
To speak in a low tone; whisper; speak secretly; take counsel.
Usage- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Archaic
- dialectal
- Intransitive
To address or speak to in a whisper, utter in a whisper.
Usage- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Archaic
- dialectal
- Transitive
- Examples
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rounded in the ear
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?"
More examples (1)
Tiberius the emperor […] perceiving a fellow round a dead corse in the ear, would needs know wherefore he did so […]
Noun
A whisper; whispering.
Usage- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Archaic
- dialectal
Discourse; song.
Usage- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Archaic
- dialectal
Adjective
having the shape or form of a circle
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
(of sounds) full and rich
- Synonyms
- Examples
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orotund tones
the rotund and reverberating phrase
More examples (1)
pear-shaped vowels
(mathematics) expressed to the nearest integer, ten, hundred, or thousand
- Examples
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in round numbers
Noun
a charge of ammunition for a single shot
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
an interval during which a recurring sequence of events occurs
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the never-ending cycle of the seasons
a regular route for a sentry or policeman
- Synonyms
- Examples
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in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name
(often plural) a series of professional calls (usually in a set order)
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the doctor goes on his rounds first thing every morning
the postman's rounds
More examples (1)
we enjoyed our round of the local bars
the activity of playing 18 holes of golf
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a round of golf takes about 4 hours
the usual activities in your day
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the doctor made his rounds
(sports) a division of a game during which one team is on the offensive
the course along which communications spread
- Examples
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the story is going the rounds in Washington
a serving to each of a group (usually alcoholic)
- Synonyms
- Examples
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he ordered a second round
a cut of beef between the rump and the lower leg
- Broader terms
a partsong in which voices follow each other; one voice starts and others join in one after another until all are singing different parts of the song at the same time
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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they enjoyed singing rounds
an outburst of applause
- Broader terms
- Examples
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there was a round of applause
a crosspiece between the legs of a chair
- Broader terms
any circular or rotating mechanism
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the machine punched out metal circles
Adverb
from beginning to end; throughout
- Synonyms
- Examples
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It rains all year round on Skye
frigid weather the year around
Verb
wind around; move along a circular course
- Examples
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round the bend
make round
- Examples
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round the edges
pronounce with rounded lips
attack in speech or writing
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker
bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state
- Examples
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polish your social manners
express as a round number
- Synonyms
- Examples
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round off the amount
become round, plump, or shapely
- Examples
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The young woman is fleshing out