| 释义 |
▪ I. round, n.1|raʊnd|
Forms: α. 4 roonde, 6 Sc. ronde, runde, 9 Sc. roond; 5 rownde, 5–7 rownd; 5–6 rounde (6 rovnde), 6– round (7 rovnd). β. 5–7 rowne, 5 rown, 8–9 dial. roun', roon'.
[Partly a. F. rond masc. or ronde fem., and partly absolute uses of round a. Cf. Du. rond, Da. and Sw. rund, G. runde.]
I.
1. a. A spherical or globular body; a sphere, globe, planet. Somewhat rare.
c1330King of Tars 544 Lymes hedde hit non; But as a roonde of flesche icore In chaumbre lay hire bifore. 1604Earl Stirling Crœsus v. i, She 'twixt her bosomes Rounds entomb'd his head. 1614― Doomsday iii. i, Immortall Monarch, ruler of the rounds. 1642H. More Song of Soul i. xxx. Wks. (Grosart) 16 As those farre shining Rounds in open skies. 1807J. Barlow Columb. i. 253 To yon dim rounds first elevate thy view.
b. this (earthly, etc.) round, the earth.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxii. ix, Lett all this round Thy honor sound. 1594Kyd Cornelia ii. 347 The Monarchies, that couer all This earthly round with Maiestie. 1607J. Davies (Heref.) Summa Totalis Wks. (Grosart) I. 21/2 The Delvge (that did rince this Rovnd). 1667Milton P.L. vii. 267 Elemental Air, diffus'd In circuit to the utter⁓most convex Of this great Round. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. i. iv, Some incarnate Mephistopheles, to whom this great terrestrial and celestial Round, after all, were but some huge foolish Whirligig.
c. The vault of heaven.
c1590Montgomerie Sonn. xxxi. 7 Behind the..tuinkling round of burning rubies rare, Quhair all the gods thy duelling do desyre. 1629Milton Hymn Nativ. x. 102 Nature that heard such sound Beneath the hollow round Of Cynthia's seat. 1697Dryden Virg. Past. iii. 160 The round of Heav'n, which all contains. 1808Scott Marm. i. Introd. 50 The wild birds carol to the round. 1879Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 99 Not a speck or film in all the round of the sky.
2. a. An object of a circular form. In early use in spec. senses, as a heraldic roundle, a round piece of metal, a round mark in archery, etc.
c1500Sc. Poem on Her. 107 in Bk. Precedence 97 In armis ar sertene rondis, as ball. 1508Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 121 To Will Raa, cultellar, for viij roundis to the Kingis suordis and grinding of thaim. 1531in Butt Ford's Archery (1887) 141 Paied to Byrde Yoeman of the Kinges bowes for making the Roundes. c1555Edw. VI Jrnl. (Roxb.) 312, I lost the chaling of shoting at roundes, and wane at rovers. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 109 Ouer their shashes the men weare rounds of stiffned russet to defend their brains from the piercing feruour. 1688Holme Armoury i. vi. 60/2, I shall in the first place speak of the Rounds, Roundles, or Roundlets. 1757W. Wilkie Epigoniad ii. 46 The Theban spear;..Full to the center of the shield, it came; And, rising swiftly from the polish'd round, His throat transfix'd. 1810Sir A. Boswell Poet. Wks. (1871) 54 Those polish'd rounds which decorate the coat, And brilliant shine upon some youth of note.
†b. Some species of flat sea-fish. Obs.—1
1602Carew Cornwall 32 Of flat [fish there are] Brets, Turbets, Dories, Round, [etc.].
c. A large round piece of beef, usually one cut from the haunch.
In Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 148, where one MS. gives rounde of bacon, the correct reading is clearly ronde: see rond n.1 1.
1660W. Denton Let. 29 Feb. in M. M. Verney Mem. (1894) III. xiii. 469 The Beef the best that ever was eat, I eat a whole Round last night my self. 1771J. Woodforde Diary 5 Jan. in Parson Woodforde Soc. Q. Jrnl. (1970) III. i. 24, I gave them for Dinner..a Round of Beef boiled. 1821Scott Pirate xvii, The board groaned with rounds of hung beef. 1853R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour liv. 309 A magnificent cold round of home-fed beef, red with saltpetre. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 16 A round of cold spiced beef.
attrib.1934Webster Round steak. 1972‘L. Egan’ Paper Chase (1973) x. 161 Athelstane was..condescending to eat the best round steak cut into bite-size pieces. 1975Evening Herald (Dublin) 8 May 6/7 Round steak..dropped by 10p per pound.
transf.1861G. F. Berkeley Eng. Sportsman xv. 246 The quarters of the animal are indeed ‘rounds of beef’.
d. Brewing. A large vessel or cask employed in the final process of fermenting beer.
1806Hull Advertiser 11 Jan. 2/2. 1830 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 173 Cleansing is generally performed in a number of vessels like hogsheads, called the rounds, from which the drink, if porter, is, when sufficiently purged, pumped up into immense store vats. 1880Spons' Encycl. Manuf. ii. 406 It was at one time the practice amongst the Scotch brewers to employ fermenting rounds only, and to cleanse from these directly into the casks.
e. pl. Comm. Articles that are naturally or artificially produced in round shapes.
1911Chambers's Jrnl. 8 Apr. 297/1 Formerly ‘flats’ and ‘rounds’ used to be spoken of to distinguish the imports of this drug [sc. rhubarb]. 1928Daily Mail 25 July 19/3 Potatoes.—Spitalfields: English Kidneys 6s to 7s, rounds 5s to 5s 6d per cwt.
3. a. A rung or rundle of a ladder.
1548Elyot, Climacter, the rounde or step of a ladder. 1579–80in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 410 Item, for the ladder rownes, vjd. 1615W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 40 A Ladder of eight or moe rounds. 1667L. Stucley Gospel Glass xxvi. (1670) 253 They should be but as the rounds of a Ladder. 1709Tatler No. 42 ⁋13 A Ladder of Ten Rounds. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v., The common mode of describing the length of a ladder is to call it ‘a ladder of so many rounds’. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1245/1 The collapsing⁓ladder..has rounds pivoted to the side-rails.
b. fig. or in fig. context.
1577–82Breton Floorish upon Fancie Pref., To make my Ladder of such stuffe As I may trust... But then the Rovndes must not be made of Rimes. a1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. (1878) i. 127 Let who will climbe ambitions glibbery rounds. 1661J. Davies Civil Warres 152 They..pursue their..intentions to the very uttermost round of the ladder. 1742Richardson Pamela III. 173, I should scorn to make myself a Round to any Man's Ladder of Preferment. 1786–7Microcosm (ed. 2) 437 Having arrived at the ‘topmost round’ of that learning which this seminary was capable of bestowing. 1858Longfellow Ladder St. Augustine ii, Our pleasures and our discontents Are rounds by which we may ascend. 1875Mrs. Trollope Charming Fellow I. xiii. 170, I may consider myself on the first round of the ladder.
†c. The rounce of a printing-press. Obs.—0
1648Hexham ii, Rondtse, the Wheele or Round of a presse.
d. A tooth or stave of a trundle.
1731Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 6 To this is applied a Trundle, or Pinion,..of six Rounds, or Teeth. 1764J. Ferguson Lect. iii. 35 A winch six inches long, fixt on the axis of a trundle of 8 staves or rounds. 1805Brewster Ferguson's Lect. I. 82 note, The cylindrical bars of trundles..are called staves, or rounds. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2634/1 Trundle-wheel, a wheel acting as a pinion, in which the cogs consist of rounds or trundles fastened in disks which are secured to an axle.
e. A round cross-bar connecting the stilts of a plough, or legs of a chair; a stretcher.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1746/2, 1994/1, 2426/2. 1905 M. E. Wilkins Debtor 266 Eddy sat down and swung his feet, kicking the round of the chair.
f. An iron bar of circular section.
1891Times 5 Oct. 4/4 Engineers are sending in good orders for turning rounds, &c., and the demand for the general run of sizes in rounds, flats, squares, &c., is steadily increasing.
4.
†a. A piece of sculpture or statuary executed in the round (see 5 a). Obs.
1622Peacham Compl. Gent. xii. (1634) 110 Besides, Rounds (so Painters call Statues and their fragments) may be had when the life cannot. Ibid., A Round is better to draw by..than any flat or painting whatsoever. 1662Evelyn Chalcogr. 116 Rounds, Busts, Relievos and entire Figures. a1700― Diary 22 Oct. 1644, Over the door is a round of M. Angelo.
b. Arch. A rounded moulding. (Cf. quarter-round, s.v. quarter n. 31.)
1673Moxon tr. Barozzi's Arch. 44 The Astragaloes, or Rounds. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Volute, In others, the Round is parallel to the Abacus, and springs out from behind the Flower thereof. a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 249 Its practical use being to strengthen the hollows rather than to enrich the rounds.
†c. A quantity of material made up in a roll.
1696J. F. Merch. Wareho. laid open 5 The Cambricks are sold..in a Parcel, the Kentings are sold by Rounds, as four or five in a Round.
d. A plane with a convex bottom and iron, for working hollows or grooves.
1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 488 Concave and convex planes, called hollows and rounds, include the fifth or sixth..of the circle. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1113/1 The illustration shows the use of hollows and rounds, in the molding of a panel door.
5. the round:
a. That form of sculpture in which the figure stands clear of any ground, as distinguished from relief. Also fig., a condition which displays a given subject from all aspects; three-dimensionality. Usu. in phr. in the round.
1811Self Instructor 512 The art of drawing, both from the round and from life. 1873Fortnum Maiolica xv. 171 Many early pieces, modelled in high relief and in the round, are probably of this origin. 1900A. S. Murray Catal. Sculpt. Parthen. 113 In slab xxxviii. the cow's right horn must have been carved in the round, only the tip being attached to the background of the relief. 1931Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Dec. 1052/3 One cannot tamper with a screen character who speaks like a human being..and has his being ‘in the round’. 1933Punch 12 July 51/2 It is not an easy part, seeing that it is the only character in the whole cast to be drawn in the round. 1948‘M. Westmacott’ Rose & Yew Tree ix. 72 Up to now Lord St. Loo had been a name, an abstraction... Now he came into the round— a living entity. 1959Spectator 7 Aug. 164/3 The camera also gives an impression in the round of the man who seems one-dimensional in print.
b. A rounded or convex form.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 407/1 Lay the bend mould upon it, so as may best answer the round according to the grain of the wood. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 43/1 The back springs back into its rounded form, and thus the face presents the appearance of having been cut in the round.
c. The natural form of timber, without being squared in any way.
1813Vancouver Agric. Devon 251 Beech about the same, and sycamore 1s. 3d. all in the round, and where the trees were fallen.
d. Theatr. In phr. in the round, alluding to performance on a stage or arena surrounded by the auditorium, as distinguished from a proscenium; esp. in theatre-in-the-round. Cf. arena 5.
1944Bull. National Theatre Conf. (U.S.) Apr. 19 In this country, Glen Hughes out in Seattle has operated his Studio and Penthouse theatres, playing sophisticated comedies to small audiences ‘in the round’. 1948Sat. Rev. 3 Apr. 24/1 ‘Theatre-in-the-round’ is the way it is described by John Rosenfeld, who is not a czar but the czar in matters dramatic and musical in the Southwest. 1950Sun (Baltimore) 8 June 16/1 The New York debut of theatre-in-the-round was off to a rousing start last week. 1958New Statesman 22 Feb. 228/3 At the Mahatma Gandhi Hall, Fitzroy Square, Miss Margaret Rawlings is giving Phèdre in English In-the-Round. 1963Listener 28 Mar. 559/2, I do object to playing to them in the round, because it gives them a chance to get at the actor physically. 1963‘E. McBain’ Ten Plus One (1964) vii. 73 We did the play in the round{ddd}we banked rows of rented bleachers on the stage, and the performers worked in the centre. 1967Oxf. Compan. Theatre (ed. 3) 941/2 Modern theatre-in-the-round first came into prominence in Russia, where in the 1930s Okhlopkov in his Realistic Theatre produced a number of Soviet plays on stages set up in the central area with the audience pressing close on all sides. 1980Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Sept. 973/1 Audience involvement was not new to Tudor Drama: medieval theatre-in-the-round had already thrived on it.
e. out-of-round n., the extent to which an object departs from being circular in section; also as adj. Hence out-of-roundness.
1951C. W. Kennedy Inspection & Gaging iv. 67 Standards for allowable taper, out-of-round or eccentricity should be established in every shop. 1955W. H. Crouse Automotive Engines xiv. 403 Some bearing failures may result..from a tapered or out-of-round crankpin. Ibid. 412 Bearings working against out-of-roundness or taper of more than 0·0015 inch will not last long. 1962Mod. Petroleum Technol. (Inst. Petroleum) (ed. 3) xxvi. 848 ‘Out-of-roundness’..must always be expected [in a pipe] as a result either of poor manufacture or of damage in transit. 1970K. Ball Fiat 600, 600D Autobk. xi. 130/2 The out-of-round must not exceed ·0004 inch. 1975Bram & Downs Manuf. Technol. iv. 110 Disadvantages of self-centring chucks are that they cannot clamp blank or out-or-round items to maintain accuracy. 1979B.S.I. News Jan. 4/1 Yielding in stiffeners due to out-of-roundness and buckling.
II.
6. The circumference or outer bounds of some circular object; the complete circle of something (with or without implication of the included area).
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 600 Paritonius, the rownde of the erth. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 952 To..turn the giddy round of Fortune's wheel. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 32 On the left side stands the round of an ancient Chappell. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 357 The ring or round of the Wheel is more flat. 1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 211 That of Rome was built of Travertine Stone..in the Circuit or exterior Round. 1784Cowper Task iv. 258 The moon..Resplendent less, but of an ampler round. 1821Scott Pirate xxv, The wide round of earth..holds nothing that I would call a recompense. 1833Tennyson Miller's Dau. 102 The dark round of the dripping wheel. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. (1858) 476 The ‘circles’ or the ‘round’ of the oases of the Jordan.
fig.1865Neale Hymns Paradise 66 There the soul, in fullest tenour, Graspeth Wisdom's total round. 1870Lowell My Books Ser. i. (1873) 170 Shakespeare, the vast round of whose balanced nature seems to have been equatorial.
7. a. A circle, ring, or coil; an annular enclosing line or device. † in round, in a circle.
1382Wyclif Lev. xix. 27 Ne ȝe shulen in rownde [L. in rotundum] dodde heer, ne shaue beerde.
1589Fleming Virg. Georg. i. 9 The serpent huge with winding bowts and rounds Slides downe..in maner of a riuer. 1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 88 What is this, that..weares vpon his Baby-brow, the round And top of Soueraignty? 1667Milton P.L. ix. 183 The Serpent..fast sleeping soon he found In Labyrinth of many a round self⁓rowld. 1742tr. Heister's Surg. iii. (1768) II. 386 Then the Roller ascends gradually by spiral Rounds towards the Inguen. 1817J. Evans Excurs. Windsor, etc. 169 At each end, in a round, is a knight on horseback, in the manner of ancient seals. 1884Times (weekly ed.) 28 Dec. 7/1 Upon which was engraved in a round, an inscription of a star with six rays.
fig.1868Nettleship Ess. Browning's Poetry viii. 291 We cannot each finish our lives to a perfect round.
†b. ? A single turn of a chain. Obs.
1693Lond. Gaz. No. 2838/4 Lost.., a Gold Chain with 7 Rounds. 1708Brit. Apollo No. 8. 4/2 A Gold Chain containing six Rounds with a Gold Locket.
c. A single turn of yarn, etc., when wound as on a reel.
1753Hanway Trav. II. i. v. 18 A moss, which is about 60 inches in the round, can be most conveniently reeled off. 1880Plain Hints 58 All materials in skeins are divided above into ‘rounds’ as they are comparatively easily counted.
8. a. A structure, or part of one, a building, enclosing wall, etc., having a circular form.
a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 336 Ane greit round as it had bene ane blokhouse. Ibid., Farder thair was tua great roundis in ilk syde of the ȝeit. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. Prol., If any spirit breathes within this round [sc. the theatre], Uncapable of waightie passion. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 16 A rotundo..open at the top with a large round. 1706tr. C'tess D'Anois Trav. 127 The old Walls..are yet standing: There are of them four Rounds, built at divers times. 1725J. Henley tr. Montfaucon's Antiq. Italy (ed. 2) 21 A Round of Walls fortified with Towers. 1820Scott Monast. v, The small round, or turret closet,..was accessible by another door. 1865Hunt Pop. Rom. West Eng. (1896) 275 Then it was that they constructed the rounds..to protect their tin ground. 1881Freeman Venice 133 The arches of the round rest on heavy rectangular piers of truly Roman strength.
b. A circular part, form, or arrangement of natural origin.
1602Carew Cornwall 107 The Iland is square with foure rounds at the corners like Mount Edgecumb. 1632Lithgow Trav. ix. 397 High are thy rounds, steepe, circled, as I see. 1741Lady Pomfret Lett. (1805) III. 269 A vast round of mountains, joined, and covered with fir-trees. 1784Beckford Vathek (1868) 68 She passed the large round of honeysuckles, her favourite resort.
c. A curve or bend, as of a river, bay, etc.
1616B. Jonson Queenes Masques Wks. II. 908 Those curious Squares and Rounds Wherewith thou flow'st betwixt the grounds Of fruitfull Kent. 1728Pope Dunc. ii. 165 So Jove's bright bow displays its watry round. 1799Nelson 30 Apr. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) III. 343 Castel-a-Mare, which is opposite Naples, and, by the Round of the Bay, twelve miles distant. 1807J. Barlow Columb. i. 262 The yielding concave bends sublimer rounds. 1890Murray's Lincolnshire 177 The Trent makes some eccentric windings, called ‘rounds’, in this parish.
†d. in round, round about. Obs.—1
1618Bolton Florus iii. x. (1636) 205 That most spacious city..was girt in round by Cæsar with workes, stakes, and a ditch.
9. a. A circular group, knot, or assemblage of persons. Freq. in phr. in a round, in a ring.
With quots. 1590, 1887 cf. sense 11.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. vi. 7 A troupe of Faunes and Satyres far away Within the wood were dauncing in a rownd. 1623Bingham Xenophon 96 The Souldiers..gathered together, and stood in rounds. 1655Stanley Hist. Philos. (1687) 52 From midst of that learn'd Round come I. 1711Addison Spectator No. 1 ⁋5 Sometimes I am seen thrusting my Head into a Round of Politicians at Will's. 1725Pope Odyss. viii. 518 The peers encircling form an awful round. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 215 The dance of four sweet Pisan maids, in a round.
fig.1784Cowper Task ii. 385 Constant at routs, familiar with a round Of ladyships. 1826Lamb Pop. Fallacies xiii, Cannot we..know Sulpicia without knowing all the round of her card-playing relations?
b. A circular group of things; a number of things set or arranged in a ring.
1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. iv. 50 (My daughter) and my little sonne, And three or foure more of their growth,..With rounds of waxen Tapers on their heads. 1620J. Pyper tr. Hist. Astrea i. ii. 7 He made a Round of dead bodies about Clidaman. 1663Charleton Chor. Gigant. 33 Encompassed only with a round of Columns. 1700T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. 131 A Grave Assembly, but ill seated upon Low Stools set in a Round.
fig.1767Young Farmer's Lett. to People 2 In a round of different professions, all must either immediately or relatively depend on each other. 1865Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxxvi, Repeating again and again the same small round of memories.
III. †10. A swinging stroke or cut. Obs.
c1450Fencing w. two handed Sword in Rel. Antiq. I. 309 A gode rounde with an hauke and smyte ryȝt doune. Ibid., Gedyr up a doblet and spare not hys croune, With a rownde and a rake abyde at a bay. a1627Sir J. Beaumont Bosworth F. 547 Erects his weapon with a nimble round, And sends the Peasant's arm to kiss the ground.
11. a. A dance in which the performers move in a circle or ring, or around a room, etc.
1513Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 193 Sum sing sangis, dansis ledys, and rovndis. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 108 To tel you..what roundes were daunced in large and brode places..it were a long woorke. 1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 130 Ile Charme the Ayre to giue a sound, While you performe your Antique round. 1636J. Stratford in Ann. Dubrensia (1877) 49 Keeping their Revells now on Cotswold downes, In thy great honour, dancing Masques, and Rownes. 1695Blackmore Pr. Arth. i. 702 The Jocond Fairies dance their silent round. 1798Wordsw. Peter Bell i. 223 Peter, by the mountain rills, Had danced his round with Highland lasses. 1819Scott Ivanhoe xliv, A good fellow and a merry, who will..draw a bow, and dance a Cheshire round, with e'er a man in Yorkshire. 1892Symonds M. Angelo (1893) I. vii. 34 Ballats for women to chant as they danced their rounds on the piazza.
fig.1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 45 There are other which haue a share with them in their Schooles, therefore ought they to daunce the same Rounde. a1593Marlowe Edw. II, iv. iii, With him is Edmund gone associate? And will Sir John of Hainault lead the round? 1799Wordsw. Three years she grew 28 Where rivulets dance their wayward round.
b. The music for such a dance. rare—1.
1626Breton Pasquil's Madcappe Wks. (Grosart) I. 7/2 A Fidler..Who..can but play a Round or Hey-de-gey, And that perhaps he onely hath by roate.
†c. Sallinger's round (prob. = St. Leger's) round. Obs.
1607Heywood Wom. killed w. Kindn. Wks. 1874 II. 98 Wee'l have Sellengers round. c1645Cleveland Let. Wks. (1677) 126, I look upon your Letter as a Spittle-Sermon; Salinger's Round, the same again. 1698E. Ward Lond. Spy ii. (1709) 30 'Twill make a Parson Dance Sallingers-round, a Puritan Lust after the Flesh.
12. a. Movement in a circle, or about an axis; motion round a certain course or track.
1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. xxviii. 415 The children with the old men made a certaine shew, with rounds and turnings. 1647Cowley Mistr., Love & Life iv, [The sun] does three hundred Rounds enclose Within one yearly Circles space. 1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 339 In giddy rounds the whirling ship is tost. 1738Wesley Hymns, Eternal Power i, Where Stars revolve their little Rounds. 1820Shelley Witch of Atl. 490 Those streams of upper air Which whirl the earth in its diurnal round. 1821Scott Pirate i, His kill-joy visage will never again stop the bottle in its round. 1877R. J. More Under the Balkans xv. 216 At the end of the third round they all marched out of the house.
fig.1846Keble Lyra Innoc. (1873) 108 The rounds of restless Love When high and low she searches. 1850Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. ix. (1853) 115 In a constant round from the capital to the watering place, and from the watering place to the capital.
†b. in (a) round, in a circle. Obs.
1626Bacon Sylva §9 This Motion worketh in round at first..and then worketh in Progress. 1632J. Hayward Biondi's Eromena 37 He ranne always in a round, going..very little wide from the same place.
c. A roundabout way or course; one which turns round in a circle.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 109 Ile leade you about a Round..through bush, through brake, through bryer. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 269, I bad them..then, keeping out of Sight, take a round, always answering when the other hollow'd. 1722― Journ. Plague (Rtldg.) 25, [He] fetch'd a Round farther into Buckinghamshire..to a Retreat he had found out there. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v, You took them in a round, while they supposed themselves going forward. 1841James Brigand xxxviii, You have given yourself a long round, and forced me to take a long round in order to meet you.
13. a. A recurring or revolving course of time.
1710Steele Tatler No. 181 ⁋1 We make it [the clock] strike the Round of all its Hours. 1710Congreve To Cynthia 27 Thro' each returning Year, may that Hour be Distinguish'd in the Rounds of all Eternity. 1798Rogers Epistle to Friend 12 The gay months of Carnival resume Their annual round of glitter and perfume. 1818Keats Endym. i. 983 What a calm round of hours shall make my days. 1842Tennyson Love & Duty 4 Shall Error in the round of time Still father Truth?
b. A recurring or continuous succession or series of events, occupations, duties, etc.
1655Vaughan Silex Scint., Repentance E 4, In all this Round of life and death. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 6 A Cave.., Where light and darkness in perpetual round Lodge and dislodge by turns. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 195 Care and sorrow and the repetition of vain delights which fill up the round of life. 1752Johnson Rambler No. 191 ⁋11 This is the round of my day; and when shall I..so change it as to want a book? 1813F. J. Jackson in Sir G. Jackson's Diaries & Lett. (1873) II. 191 The noisy round of the so-called pleasures of a London season. 1841B. Hall Patchwork II. 209 The same causes bring a perpetual round of company to Malta. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream of Leicestersh. 337 The Quorn had a round of sport from noon till dark.
c. spec. A recurring succession or series of meetings for discussion or negotiation; one stage in such a process. Also without const.
1964Ann. Reg. 1963 252 They disagreed on what should be the approach of the Six in preparation for the forthcoming ‘Kennedy round’ of negotiations. 1977Economist 22 Oct. 89/1 There is still no sign (two months into the current wage round) that wages are about to go through the roof. 1978Internat. Relations Dict. (U.S. Dept. State Library) 42/2 The talks, which opened in Geneva in October 1973, were called the ‘Tokyo Round’ because they were initiated by a declaration signed in Tokyo.
14. Mil.
a. The walk or circuit performed by the watch among the sentinels of a garrison, camp, etc., esp. during the night. Chiefly in phr. to go († make, take, tread), pace, or walk the round.
After F. ronde, whence also Sp., Pg., and It. ronda.
1598Barret Theor. Warres vi. iv. 244 The first [soldier] in the time of winter maketh his Rounds & counter Roundes for sixe houres. 1616J. Lane Contn. Sqr.'s T. viii. 434 So gettinge vp, he quicklie trode the rowne,..and crie[d] revenge, which pleasd the soldiers tooth. 1646H. P. Medit. Seige 92 He that hath the charge of the Guard in the night time is to walke the round at times. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., In strict Garrison, the Rounds go every Quarter of an Hour. a1791Langton in Boswell (Oxf. ed.) II. 272 He accompanied the Major of the regiment in going what are styled the Rounds, where he might observe the forms of visiting the guards. 1813Scott Trierm. iii. x, As when a guard Of some proud castle, holding ward, Pace forth their nightly round. 1868Regul. & Orders Army §859 Commanders of Guards are to go their rounds twice by day and twice by night.
fig.1855Browning Master Hugues iv, You may challenge them, not a response Get the church-saints on their rounds!
b. A watch under the command of an officer, which goes round a camp, the ramparts of a fortress, etc., to see that the sentinels are vigilant, or which parades the streets of a town to preserve good order; a military patrol.
1581W. Blandy Castle of Policy 18 b, Corporall, gentleman in a company or of the Rounde, Launce passado. 1598Barret Theor. Warres iv. ii. 107 The Round finding the Sentinell vigilant, neede not alwayes approch neare him. 1627R. Bernard Isle of Man (1635) 152 Divers times meeting the Gentlemen of the round.., he would stop their passages and turne them backe againe. 1652Wadsworth tr. Sandoval's Civ. Wars Spain 151 After which they kept their Rounds and Guards in the Citie, and sent Hors to the relief of Segovia. 1711E. Ward Quix. 193 Don Vincent fearing to be taken up by the Rounds,..left that Street with all possible speed. 1802James Milit. Dict. s.v., As soon as the sentry..perceives the round coming, he shall give notice to the guard. 1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 84 It was just the place to hear the round going by at night in the darkness, with the solid tramp of men marching.
c. pl. Naut. Inspection.
1902L. Delbos Naut. Terms (ed. 4) 140/1 Rounds, inspection. 1914‘Bartimeus’ Naval Occasions xviii. 158 The Sub-Lieutenant, ‘standing the rounds’ in the doorway. 1916‘Taffrail’ Stand By! 13 Except on Sundays, when the latter is specially tidied up for the ‘rounds’, it will not bear close investigation. 1961F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 174 Rounds, inspection.
15. A customary circuit, walk, or course; the beat or course traversed by a watchman, constable, vendor, etc.; also transf., esp. a visit to each of the in-patients in a ward or under the care of a particular doctor or nurse. Freq. in phr. to walk, take, go, etc., one's round(s).
1607J. Davies (Heref.) Summa Totalis Wks. (Grosart) I. 10/2 Ere once the Sunne his Round perambulate. 1688S. Penton Guard. Instr. (1897) 43, I could willingly have heard him [a Proctor in Oxford] longer but that he was to go his Rounds. 1709Steele Tatler No. 2 ⁋2 The watchful Bell⁓man march'd his Round. 1742Richardson Pamela IV. 74 In the Account she gave us of her benevolent Round, as Lady Davers calls it. 1815Scott Guy M. xvii, The regularity with which the keeper makes his rounds with a loaded fowling-piece. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xxxii, A pot⁓man was going his rounds with beer. 1878J. Miller Songs of Italy 36 If a dead man should be found By these same fishers in their round. 1904Sci. & Art of Nursing I. iv. 99 There is always the danger that in the haste and pressure to have all in order for the rounds of the medical staff, the minor requests of patients may be postponed. 1928A. T. Schofield Behind Brass Plate xiii. 94 Samuel Fenwick, in his rounds, was very droll... After the usual examination of a new patient he performed his well-known trick. 1954A. Huxley Let. 9 May (1969) 706 He [sc. a physician] takes foreign pupils—mostly doctors..—young men who live near by and go the rounds with him and learn by listening, answering questions and doing. 1965Spencer & Tait Introd. Nursing vii. 31 It is generally considered that visitors can be in a main ward outside main meal times, sanitary rounds, rest times and doctors' rounds. 1974G. B. Mair Confessions of Surgeon v. 58 When added to routine clerking, ward rounds, night rounds, dealing with emergencies,..no day had enough hours.
attrib.1897Crockett Lad's Love xxv, These irregular and uncovenanted halts, not entered in the round book.
16. a. A turn, a walk or drive, round a place or to a series of places, for the purpose of recreation, sight-seeing, purchasing, etc.; esp. in phr. to make, go, take a round. Also fig.
1611Beaum. & Fl. Philaster ii. iv, Come, Ladies, shall we talk a round? As men Do walk a mile, women should talk an hour After supper. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 100 Thence we took a Round..to the English Tombs. Ibid. 137 Liberty to take a Round about the Castle. 1709Steele Tatler No. 13 ⁋1, I went into Lincoln-Inn-Walks; and having taken a Round or Two, I sate down. 1765Foote Commissary i, Mercy upon me, what a round I have taken!..don't you see I am tired to death? a1822Shelley Faust ii. 364 Yet I will take a round with you, and hope..To beat the poet and the devil together.
slang.c1848‘Judson’ Myst. N.Y. i. 113 Taking a cruise about town, or going on a spree, is called taking a round.
b. A series of visits or calls.
1772F. Burney Early Diary 30 Apr., We went yesterday to make a round of visits. 1843Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxvii, I had a round of visits to make. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xi, I..made another round of visits.
c. Golf. A spell of play in which the player goes right round the course, or plays all the holes.
1775C. B. Clapcott Rules of Golf (1935) 24 No member of this Society pay the Cadies more than one penny per round. 1834P. Buchan Peterhead Smugglers 63 To gang wi' you to the links ilka morning at five o'clock to a round o' the golf. 1866Golfer's Year Bk. 65 The order of play was the reverse of the wonted ‘round’ over Bruntsfield, in order that strangers might cope on equal footing with players who were up to the green. Each round consisted of 7 holes, and four rounds were fixed on for the decision of the Tournament. 1879Encycl. Brit. X. 766/2 A ‘round’, as it is termed, of the links [at St. Andrews] is very nearly four miles. 1897Encycl. Sport I. 473 Medal play, the method of playing a game of golf by counting the number of strokes taken to the round by each side.
17. a. The circuit of a place, etc. † Also in early use without const.
1609B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. ii, He walks the round up and down, through every room o' the house. 1655tr. Sorel's Com. Hist. Francion iv. 11 The principal was by that time in the court and walked the round with a great lanthorn before him. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull i. x, You have danc'd the Round of all the Courts. 1779Johnson in Boswell 27 Oct., I am glad that you made the round of Lichfield with so much success. 1843Le Fevre Life Trav. Phys. II. ii. ii. 189 In a short time we made the round of the Society. 1861Peacock Gryll G. xxxi, Lord Curryfin..—in his official capacity—taking the round of the rooms. 1883J. Gilmour Mongols xviii. 211 You will find him..going the rounds of the sacred place, prostrating himself at every shrine.
fig.1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 582 Rounds of the Galley,..is figurative of a man incurring the expressed scorn of his shipmates.
b. to go the round, of communications, news, etc., to be passed or handed on round a whole set of persons, etc.; also const. of. Now usu. pl.; also to make the rounds.
1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 124 The rest..communicate it one to another, till it hath gone the round. 1833H. Martineau Tale of Tyne v. 79 No light sayings of his upon the matter were going the round of his neighbourhood. 1837Jamestown (N.Y.) Jrnl. 22 Mar. 3/2 There is a story going the rounds in relation to the president-elect. 1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. I. 66 The following anecdote, that is now going the round of the papers. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. ii. (1889) 9 This celebrated epistle..created quite a sensation..as it went the round after tea. 1862O. W. Norton Army Lett. (1903) 55 Everything of the kind has to go the rounds, you know. 1934H. L. Ickes Secret Diary (1953) I. 254 He expressed the fear that in some way I connected him with all of these stories that are going the rounds about me. 1977Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 39/2 The rumor that the FBI started about her being a Soviet spy is still making the rounds at parties she no longer attends.
c. pl. (See quots.; and cf. roundsman 1.)
1795Sir F. M. Eden State Poor II. 29 Most labourers are, (as it is termed,) on the Rounds; that is, they go to work from one house to another round the parish. 1813Batchelor Agric. 608 (E.D.D.), The increase of population has caused a deficiency of employment, which is so remarkable in some seasons, that a great proportion of the labourers ‘go the rounds’. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Rounds-Men, labouring poor, who are taken into employment by the farmers in rotation; when they are said to be ‘on the rounds’.
IV.
†18. in round, in turn or rotation. rare.
1527Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading 32 At this accompte hath bene dismissed John Beke and chosen in round Richard Body.
19. Mus.
†a. A kind of song sung by two or more persons, each taking up the strain in turn.
1530Palsgr. 264/1 Rounde a songe, rondeau, uirelay. 1586W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 61 The sixt kinde, is called a round, beeing mutuallie sung betweene two: one singeth one verse, the other the next, eche rymeth with himselfe. 1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. x, He had beene..the master setter of catches or roundes vsed to be sung by Tinkers, as they sit by the fire with a pot of good ale betweene theyr legges. 1641Brome Joviall Crew iv. i, A Round, a Round, a Round, Boyes, a Round, Let Mirth fly aloft, and Sorrow be drown'd. 1683Soame & Dryden Boileau's Art Poet. ii. 366 Each poem his perfection has apart; The British round in plainness shows his art.
b. (See quot. 1872.)
1776Burney Hist. Mus. (1789) III. 348 A round is no more than a song of as many strains or sections as parts. 1811Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 3), Round, a species of fugue in the unison, composed in imitation of a catch, and so called because the performers follow each other through the several parts in a circulatory motion. 1872Banister Music (1885) xxxv. 188 A Round is a species of Canon, for three or more equal voices, in which one voice sings a short complete melody, which is then sung by a second voice, the first voice proceeding to another accompanying melody.
20. a. A quantity of liquor served round a company, or drunk off at one time by each person present. † to keep the round, to drink equally with the others.
1633G. Herbert Temple, Ch. Porch v, Drink not the third glasse... It is most just to throw that on the ground, Which would throw me there, if I keep the round. 1667Davenant & Dryden Tempest ii. i, This is prize brandy... Let's have two rounds more. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 8 ⁋2 The Tories..can scarce find beauties enough of their own side, to supply a single round of October. 1760C. Johnston Chrysal (1822) I. 71 A round or two of loyal toasts. 1799Geo. IV in Paget Papers (1896) I. 150 Every Round was a Bumper to you in the very best Claret I had. 1821Scott Pirate iv, A round of cinnamon-water serving only like oil to the flame. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. xxi, Serve out a round of brandy to all hands. 1928C. Mackenzie Extraordinary Women x. 176 Two rounds of stingers brought the evening to a close. 1960M. Spark Ballad of Peckham Rye (1964) vii. 107 Dixie, at first under the impression that Humphrey was buying the round, asked for a ginger ale. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard viii. 255 Just a slag avoiding his round. 1978J. Porter Dead Easy for Dover xii. 125 The local chap had proved himself more than willing to stand his round, and Dover didn't ask more than that of anyone.
b. A piece cut right across the loaf. Also, a sandwich or sandwiches made of two slices cut from a loaf of bread.
1840Dickens Barn. Rudge iv, A couple of rounds of buttered toast. a1845Barham Ingold. Leg., Knt. & Lady, A round and a half of hot buttered toast. a1902S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) lxxii. 330 She..had made him a round of toast. 1947A. Ransome Great Northern? xix. 232 Peggy was cutting rounds of bread to make potted meat sandwiches. 1974L. Deighton Spy Story xvi. 162 ‘Have you come for your sandwiches?’.. ‘Last night's pork, and one round of cheese.’
21. A quantity representing a single turn of work by a set of men; each man's contribution to this.
1708J. C. Compleat Collier (1845) 37 Those Sticks immediately show him how many Rounds the Barrow-Men have put.
22. a. A single discharge of each piece of artillery or firearm; each of the shots fired by a single piece.
1725Lond. Gaz. No. 6378/4 The great Guns..fired several Rounds. 1794Nelson 30 July in Nicolas Disp. (1845) I. 462 The Garrison fired one general round, when they nearly all left their guns. 1821Scott Kenilw. xxx, A round of artillery..was discharged from the battlements. 1846Greener Sci. Gunnery 58 The number of rounds that each gun fired averaged 1,249. 187819th Cent. Mar. 446 Of the men sent to Malta..a considerable proportion..had never even fired a round of ball cartridge.
b. A single charge of ammunition for a firearm.
1747Gentl. Mag. 345 Wolfe's regiment carried into the field 24 rounds a man... Afterwards they had a supply of 8 rounds a man more. 1815Wellington 6 May in Gurw. Desp. (1838) XII. 355, I have thought it expedient to lodge in the fortress..1,000,000 rounds of musket ammunition. 1868Regul. & Orders Army §630 For every trained soldier in the infantry 90 rounds of ball Cartridges, and 300 rounds per Battery for Artillery. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 66/1 The reduction in the weight of the arm with sixty rounds of ammunition was three pounds.
23. a. Card-playing. A single turn of play by all the players.
a1735Granville Epigr. & Char., Women, Women to cards may be compar'd; we play A round or two, when us'd we throw away. 1742Hoyle Whist 22 You must play three Rounds of Trumps, otherwise you may have your strong Suit trumped. 1850Bohn's Hand-bk. Games (1867) 137 At the fourth round of trumps, he revokes, and afterwards trumps your suit. 1885R. A. Proctor Whist i. 27 The first round may show it to be unadvisable to continue the suit.
b. Pugilism. A single bout in a fight or a boxing-match. Also transf., fig., and in attrib. phr. round-by-round.
1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 187 The round lasted three minutes. 1846C. St. John Wild Sports Highl. 248 We heard the clash of horns as two rival stags met and fought a few rounds together. 1886C. Hazard Mem. J. L. Diman i. 16 This friendship, which dated from a round of fisticuffs and bloody noses on both sides. 1937‘M. Innes’ Hamlet, Revenge! ii. iii. 137 Gott sighed. ‘You certainly know the habits of your friends. Round Two to you.’ 1955T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences 246 Championship fight..with a leading article and a back-page ‘round-by-round’ report. 1959Listener 22 Oct. 681/2 He began round two by making a fresh application for habeas corpus. 1961Times 25 May 15/4 It is a remarkable round-by-round study in the art of politics. 1967Listener 3 Aug. 147/3 By quoting, selectively, two rounds of a three-round controversy..[you] gave an inaccurate picture of the course of the argument.
c. Archery. The discharge of a certain number of arrows by each archer.
1875Encycl. Brit. II. 373/2 The origin of ‘The York round’, on which all public competitions by archers are now conducted. Ibid., Two days' shooting, or the result of a ‘double round’. 1879M. & W. H. Thompson Archery 12 The ‘National Round’..consists of 48 arrows at 60 yards, and 24 arrows at 50 yards.
d. Sport. A spell of play forming a definite stage in a competition or match.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 425/2 All the clubs entered are drawn by lot, in pairs, to play together in the first round; the winners of these ties are then similarly drawn in pairs for the next round. 1921[see end n. 20 b]. 1951Sport 30 Mar.–5 Apr. 2/4 In the Amateur Cup they reached the second round, losing to Pegasus.
24. a. A separate or distinct outburst of applause, cheers, etc.
1794C. Mathews Let. 28 Dec. in A. Mathews Mem. Charles Mathews (1838) i. vi. 129 He came forward at the end of the play.., and he had six successive rounds of applause. 1808Monthly Mirror Mar. 268 The audience..with not three, but six rounds of applause, greeted his return. 1815Scott Guy M. xxxvi, The gravity with which he accommodated himself to the humour of the moment..procured him three rounds of applause. 1867Dickens Let. to Miss Hogarth 29 March, The roars of welcome and the rounds of cheers. 1884Western Daily Press 21 Oct. 8/1 Mr. Chamberlain, on rising to reply, was received with several rounds of hearty cheers.
b. A single stroke in succession from each bell of a set or peal. Also transf.
1826Lamb Pop. Fallacies ix, Ringing a round of the most ingenious conceits. 1872Ellacombe Bells of Ch. in Ch. Bells Devon iii. 35 The ringing ‘rounds’, and ‘call changes’ was a good deal cultivated. 1897Jane Lordship xiii, A man well practised in all that pertained to bells, whether rounds, changes, eights, twelves.
25. ellipt. = round-the-houses s.v. round prep. 1 a. slang.
1893P. H. Emerson Signor Lippo xiv. 55 One day he walked straight into this kitchen clobbered in a black pair of rounds, tight to his legs.
Add:[III.] [15.] b. Austral. The routine covering of news stories in a specific field by a journalist. Usu. in pl.
1934Newspaper News (Sydney) 1 Oct. 11/1 He..left there to do Trades and Labour rounds, Police rounds and special writing for The Evening News. 1946H. Baxter Reporter's Experiences (ed. 2) 147 A Shire Council meeting, writing paragraphs, following enquiries on rounds, with hospital, morgue, fire brigade, police stations [etc.]. 1961C. McKay This is the Life 25 At night, about half past seven, I started on police rounds.
▪ II. round, n.2|raʊnd|
[f. round v.1]
The act of rounding. Chiefly Naut. with aft, down.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v. Architecture, The horizontal curve, or round-aft, of the first transom. 1846A. Young Naut. Dict., Round-Aft, in shipbuilding, the outward curve or convex form of the stern from the wing transom upwards. 1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xii. 241 A stringer angle-iron is worked at the beginning of the round-down in order to form a finish to the deck planking. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 44/1 The pressure of the roller against the back gives the required ‘round’, which can be varied by raising or lowering the pitch of the roller. 1943T. Harsley Find, fire, & Strike 38 The ‘round down’ at the stern where the aircraft ready to take off are ranged.
▪ III. round, a.|raʊnd|
Forms: α. 4 rund(e, 4–5 rond(e; 3– round, 4–6 rounde (5 rouned, rovnd), rownd(e, 5 rowndde, rowunde; 5 roende, 6 roound(e, 8–9 Sc. and north. roond. β. 4–5 roon, 5 roune, rowne, 8–9 Sc. and north. roon', roun'.
[a. OF. rund-, rond-, round-, etc. (mod.F. rond masc., ronde fem.), representing earlier *redond, *rodond, = Prov. redon, redun, Sp. and Pg. redondo, It. ritondo, rotondo (and tondo):—L. rotundus: see rotund a. The French word is also the source of MDu. ront, rond- (Du. rond), MHG. runt, rund- (G. rund), (M)Sw., Da., Norw. rund, Fris. roun, † ruwn.]
I.
1. a. Having all parts of the surface equidistant from the centre; spherical, globular; resembling a ball.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 311/407 Ase an Appel þe eorþe is round. Ibid. 318/654 Þe eorþe a-midde þe grete se ase a luyte bal is round. a1300Cursor M. 293 In þe sune..Es a thing and thre thingys sere; A bodi rond, and hete, and light. c1386Chaucer Frankl. T. 500 This wyde world which that men seye is round. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) i. 4 Þis ymage was wont to hald in his hand a rounde appel of gold. c1470Gol. & Gaw. 886 Armyt in rede gold, and rubeis sa round. 1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Globus, The rounde earth appearyng aboue the sea. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. v. 35 An huge round stone did reele Against an hill. 1631Widdowes Nat. Philos. 18 Hayle is rayne, made hard in the fall, the higher the fall, the rounder and lesser. 1688Holme Armoury ii. 114/2 Bolle of a Poppy is the round seed Pod. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Leaf, A sage leaf appears like a rug, or shag,..embellished with fine round crystal beads. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 110 The motions whereby the round universe continues its course. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 238 By dissolving in this manner it becomes round, and acquires transparency. 1864Tennyson Voyage 7 We knew the merry world was round, And we might sail for evermore.
fig.1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 10 To lawe go they, as round as a ball, till..both, or at least the one, become a beggar all daies of his life.
b. round shot, spherical balls of cast-iron or steel for firing from smooth-bore cannon.
1616J. Lane Contn. Sqr.'s T. v. 245 Powder, crosse barrs, round shott, pikes. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 67 Round Shot is a round Bullet for any Peece. 1728Chambers Cycl., Shot..are of several Sorts; as Round-shot, or Bullets fitted to the Bore of the Piece. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. ix. 227 The great guns loaded with two round-shot for the first broadside, and after that with one round-shot and one grape. 1847Marryat Childr. N. Forest xxiii, Duke Hamilton having his leg taken off by a round shot. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. xvii, The round shot and the powder for the gun had been left behind.
Comb.1832Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) II. 175 But a mathematical formula, when right, is a terrible modification of truth, a round-shot-like method of conveyance, which..tells dangerously on arriving at its destination.
ellipt.1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4380/2 We gave him..our Broadside with Double and Round. 1736[Chetwood] Voy. Vaughan (1760) II. 214 We fir'd upon 'em with our Double and Round. 1804Monson in Owen Wellesley's Desp. (1877) 544 We..charged the enemy's advanced party under a most tremendous discharge of round, grape, and chain. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 13 When loading with round and grape.
2. a. Cylindrical; circular in respect of section.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1172 Stakes of ire monion,..Aboue ssarpe & kene inou, bineþe grete & rounde. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paul) 850 Þai..þe padok fand In a rownd tour still ȝelland. 1389in Eng. Gilds (1870) 8 Þer shul be founde v. tapres rounde,..for to ben iliȝt on heye feste dayes. c1440Promp. Parv. 438/1 Rownde, as a spere or a staffe,..teres. 1486Bk. St. Albans a vij, This hawke has..a flat leg, or a rownde legge. 1530Palsgr. 264/1 Rounde tothe. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 106 Such as are flawed, seruing for Pillers of Churches, or other round woorkes. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 484 Hollow Engins long and round Thick-rammd. 1680Moxon Mech. Exerc. xiii. 223 Turners work with a round String made of Gut. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. File, Those in common use are the Square,..Half-round, Round, Thin File, &c. all which are made of different Sizes. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 16 That tower in the horizon..is blue, small and round. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 94 Rounder than one of your own sausages. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 36 A Round Broach is used for burnishing brass holes.
†b. Sc. Of cloth: Made of thick thread. Obs.
1488Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 139 For thre elne of rownde braide clayth. 1503Ibid. II. 212 For x elne roundair claith, to be tua sarkis. 1566in Hay Fleming Mary Q. of Scots (1897) 500 Tuelf elne of rownd cleith to be schetis to the servandis. 1589Exch. Rolls Scot. XXII. 72 Small lyning.., round lining..at 6s. 6d. the eln.
c. Having a convex surface. rare—1.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §33 This shall cause the lande to lye rounde,..and than shall it not drowne the corne.
d. Of the shoulders: Having a forward bend from the line of the back.
1709Tatler No. 75 ⁋5 The Butler..was noted for round Shoulders, and a Roman Nose. 1784Cowper Task iv. 634 His awkward gait,..round shoulders, and dejected looks. a1890T. C. Crawford Eng. Life 87 (Cent.), He is of medium height, with sloping, round shoulders.
3. a. Of persons (or animals): Plump, free from angularity; also, stout, corpulent.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 351/227 Ȝwane heo cam hom at eue, fair and round heo was. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8570 Þikke mon he was ynou, round & noȝt wel long. 1390Gower Conf. II. 40 Hou sche is softe, How sche is round, hou sche is smal. c1440Promp. Parv. 438/1 Rownde, for fetnesse, obesus. 1576Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs (1880) 8 Such a one..as is..smoothe, full, fatte, and round. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 155 Why you horson round man? what's the matter? 1748Thomson Cast. Indol. i. lxix, A little, round, fat, oily man of God. 1828Ticknor in Life, etc. I. xix. 381 She is a nice round lively little girl. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Race, They are round, ruddy, and handsome,..and there is a tendency to stout and powerful frames.
b. Of limbs, or parts of the body: Plump, full filled-out; well-shaped. Also fig. of character.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s Tale 1278 Hise lymes grete,..Hise shuldres brode, hise armes rounde and longe. 1390Gower Conf. III. 27 He seth hire necke round and clene, Therinne mai no bon be sene. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. i. 25 And yet it irkes me the poore dapled fooles [sc. deer]..Should..Haue their round hanches goard. 1614Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue iv. 372 Her ruddy round Cheeks seem'd to be composed Of Roses Lillied, or of Lillies Rosed. 1832Irving Alhambra I. 29 The play of a graceful form and round pliant limbs. 1859Tennyson Elaine 1177 Take..These jewels, and make me happy, making them An armlet for the roundest arm on earth. 1927E. M. Forster Aspects of Novel iv. 106 The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises, it is flat.
c. Of garments: Made so as to envelope the body or limbs in a circular manner; cut circularly at the bottom, so as to have no train or skirts. See also quot. 1960.
a1400Morte Arth. 3470 A renke in a rownde cloke, with righte rowmme clothes. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 239 A ryche goune of cloth of golde reised, made rounde without any trayne after the Dutche fassyon. 1592Greene Conny Catch. Wks. (Grosart) XI. 95 The round hose bumbasted close to the breech..is now common to euery cullion in the country. 1596Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 55 If you aske why I haue put him in round hose, that vsually weares Venetians? 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 91 [The vest] is cut very round before, so that the right side of it reaches over the Stomack. 1788E. Sheridan Jrnl. 22 Dec. (1960) vi. 138 As to gowns all kinds—Chemises—Round gowns with flounce or not. 1796in A. C. Bower Diaries & Corr. (1903) 163, I have bought a spotted muslin round gown. 1815La Belle Assemblée June 274/1 Morning-Dress. Round dress of jacconet muslin. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz (1837) 2nd Ser. 100 They were decent people, but not over-burdened with riches, or he would not have so outgrown the suit when he passed into those corduroys with the round jacket. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem., Finale, When he wore a round jacket, and showed a marvellous nicety of aim in playing at marbles. 1882L. Campbell Life Clerk Maxwell iii. 48 A round cloth jacket for winter wear. 1960C. W. Cunnington et al. Dict. Eng. Costume 184/2 Round dress or gown,..a term indicating a dress with joined bodice and skirt, the latter closed all round... 18th c. Occasionally made with a slight train. 19th c. No train, the term now meaning a dress without a train.
d. Of sails: Distended, bellied.
1881Daily Tel. 28 Jan., Our old patched sails overhead were as round as the brig's bows.
e. Designating any of several styles of circular, conical, or pill-box hat.
1795tr. C. P. Moritz's Trav. 141 A fellow in a brown frock and round hat. 1804Med. Jrnl. XII. 76 Forming somewhat the shape of a round hat. c1806D. Wordsworth Jrnl. (1941) I. 303 A fine fellow..in tight clean clothes and a nice round hat. 1825H. Wilson Mem. II. 175 Down came Colonel Palmer..his laced jacket covered with an old, short, brown great coat, and a shabby round hat. 1828D. Wordsworth Jrnl. (1941) II. 403 Women often with round hats, like the Welsh. 1890C. M. Yonge More Bywords 137 Those foolish girls thought me too fine a lady to like to be seen with her in her round hat on a Sunday. 1968[see pill-box b].
4. a. Having all parts of the circumference equidistant from the centre; circular, formed like a circle; also, annular, spiral.
a1300St. Edmund 232 in E.E.P. 77 Þreo rounde cerclen heo wrot in þe paume amidde. 1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 146 Of penyes rounde to Richard gan he bede Sexti þousand pounde. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 357 Þe sacrid oost whijt & round þat men seen in þe preestis hondes. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 42 Þan take fayre brede, & kytte it as troundez rounde. 1466in Archaeol. L. i. (1887) 35 Item j Rowne hope for the curtyne of oure lady in the chapell. 1530Palsgr. 264/1 Rounde buckeler, rodelle. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 95 Sitting in my Dolphin-chamber at the round table, by a sea-cole fire. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 97 The low-roome was round and spacious. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 98 The Wizard makes a round hole in the ground. 1683Temple Mem. Wks. 1720 I. 387 He wou'd be glad to see..the Spanish Territories lie closer and rounder than they were then left. 1747Gray Death favourite Cat 8 The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 55 The ears are like those of a rat, being short and round. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 122 A round cloth, spread in the middle of the floor. a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 155 In both countries the round abacus was..used from an early period.
fig.1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 402 Thus haue I runne about a round row of writers, and haue shewed wherein they are to be marked.
†b. Of vessels: Broad in the beam and with blunt stem and stern. Obs.
1600E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 183 With threescore galleis, and some round vessels. 1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 11 He might then either leave the Galley..or send her backe againe, and there hire or buy a round vessell.
c. Exhibiting a curvilinear form or outline; curved; forming a segment of a circle.
1662Evelyn Chalcogr. 5 Some round cheezil or lathe perhaps it was. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 24 Figure A is contained under one Limit or Term, which is the round Line. 1678Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 70 There are several other Plains in use among Joyners, called Molding-plains; as, the Round, the Hollow [etc.]. 1842Gwilt Encycl. Arch. §397 Sometimes we find one [pointed arch]..inserted between several round ones. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Round chisel, an engraver's tool having a rounded belly. Ibid., Round-plane, a plane with a round sole for making rounded work.
d. Of measure: Circumferential.
1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 98 This Table of Round Measure shews how much in length makes a solid Foot of Timber in any round piece.
e. Of vowels: Produced by contracting the lips towards a circular form.
1867A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. i. iii. §3. 160 Round or Labialised Vowels. 1888Sweet Hist. Eng. Sounds 20 The unrounding of back round vowels is rare.
5. a. Going round in, tracing out, a circle. round dance, (a) = ring-dance (see also quot. 1868); also round dancer, round dancing; (b) [tr. G. rundtanz (K. von Frisch 1923, in Zool. Jahrb., Abt. f. Allgemeine Zool. u. Physiol. der Tiere XL. 31], a circular movement performed by bees at their hive or nest, believed to indicate a source of food to other bees.
1530Palsgr. 264/1 Rounde daunce. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Vertigo cæli, the rounde course of celestiall bodies. 1648Winyard Midsummer-Morn 2 His blood rides the round post, or dances the Morrice through him. 1683Penn in R. Burton Eng. Emp. Amer. (1685) 117 The other part is their Cantico, performed by round-Dances. 1868G. J. Whyte-Melville White Rose I. i. 3 The lightest mover that ever turned a partner's head in a waltz (we did not call them round dances then). 1891Scribner's Mag. Sept. 287/1 Each vessel making a complete circuit of the world on the round voyage. 1919Ladies' Home Jrnl. May 31/1 My dear lady, are you going to give up round dancing? 1947A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era x. 110 The sharp rhythm of round dances and torch dances. 1950K. von Frisch Bees iii. 71 The round dance and the wagging dance are two different terms in the language of bees, the former meaning a source of food near the hive and the latter a source at 100 metres or more. 1952C. R. Ribbands Behaviour & Social Life of Bees xix. 153 The characteristic of the ‘round dance’ is that the bee performs a complete circle, whereas the ‘waggle dance’ is a figure-of-eight. 1973R. A. Morse Compl. Guide Beekeeping xiii. 203 Certain races of bees use a dance intermediate between the round dance and the wag-tail dance incorporating parts of both. 1976Columbus (Montana) News 3 June 1/2 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shanks, Columbus, are ardent and avid square and round dancers.
†b. Round-about; to the opposite quarter. Obs.
1611Cotgr., Revirade, a wheeling, or round turne; a backe iert. Ibid., Virevoulte, a veere, whirle, round gambol.
c. Of time: Recurrent. rare—1.
1860Emerson Cond. Life vii, The round year Will bring all fruits and virtues here.
6. Boxing. Of blows: Delivered with a swing of the arm. Also transf. of persons.
1808Sport. Mag. XXX. 247 Giving a round blow. 1810Ibid. XXXVI. 195 He is a slow round hitter. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. iii, [He] made a hit at me—it was a round weak blow that missed me and almost knocked himself down. 1901Edgeworth-Johnstone Boxing 42 The left elbow must be raised outwards until in a line with the shoulder... The blow is a round one.
II.
7. a. Of numbers: Full, complete, entire; esp. round dozen. Also transf. expressed roundly.
1340Ayenbite 1 Blind, and dyaf, and alsuo domb. Of zeuenty yer al uol rond. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 40 Yitt have I haid the round desone; and sevin of thame ar menis wyffis. 1638Baillie Lett. & Jrnls. (1841) I. 125 On Thursday..we had no scant of protestations; more than a round dozen were inacted. 1677W. Hughes Man of Sin ii. ii. 25, I will stint at Twelve... When the round Dozen is pay'd off,..I mean no more than bare Interest thereby. 1711Country-Man's Let. to Curate 4 This he pretends to make good by an enumeration of a round Dozen of our Reformers. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. ix. 227 This Manila ship, whose wealth..we now estimated by round millions. c1829D. Jerrold in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1969) I. 175, I deserve a round dozen [sc. thirteen lashes] for the question. 1837Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) I. xvi. 249 A round half dozen of pretty girls. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 581 Round Dozen, a punishment term for thirteen lashes. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. xxi, There was a round score of muskets for the seven of us.
b. round number, a number which is only approximately correct, usually one expressed in tens, hundreds, etc., without precise enumeration of units.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. i, Nor is it unreasonable to make some doubt whether..Moses doth not sometime account by full and round numbers. 1649Roberts Clavis Bibl. 57 It's usuall in Scripture to put the round number, for the punctual number. 1727Newton Chronol. Amended (1728) i. 64 Appion..tells in round numbers that Carthage stood seven hundred years. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 491/2 It is common for historians to make use of a round number, except in cases where great precision is required. 1824Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 389, I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate. 1858Doram Walpole's Last Jrnls. I. 485 It is now, in round numbers, fifty-five millions. 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (1880) §456 An abstract substantive which..has a peculiar utility in expressing the more conventional quantities or Round numbers.
Comb.1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 526 This, still pursuing the round-number system, would supply nearly five articles of refuse apparel to every man.
fig.1850Thackeray Pendennis xlv, Such may be stated, in round numbers, to be the result of the information which Major Pendennis got. 1874T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd x, Well, ma'am, in round numbers, she's run away with the soldiers.
c. Of computation, etc.: Approximately exact; roughly correct. rare.
In quot. 1746 perhaps = ‘high’, ‘liberal’.
1631Gouge God's Arrows ii. §1. 131 He would in a round reckoning have beene said to have raigned one and forty yeares. 1746Acc. French Settlements N. Amer. 18 In the year 1700, it was computed, that there were about five thousand able, effective men in Canada;..some judicious people think it is a pretty round computation. 1831Scott Cast. Dang. vii, ‘I may form a round guess,’ answered the stranger, ‘what I might have to fear’.
8. a. Of a sum of money: Large, considerable in amount.
1579Nottingham Rec. IV. 192 The londe lorde shall be bownde to..the towne in a good round somme of money. 1599Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 138 Their Annates and tenths doe still runne current..: and amount no doubt unto a good round summe. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. iv. 84 Ile lay ye all By th' heeles,..and on your heads Clap round Fines for neglect. 1673T. L. Remarques Humours Town 35 A round summ of ready money. 1711Steele Spect. No. 41 ⁋5 At length he was forced to the last Refuge, a round Sum of Money to her Maid. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. 218 It being usual in those courts to exchange their spiritual censures for a round compensation in money. 1817Scott Let. in Lockhart (1837) IV. ii. 67 My sum is L.1700, payable in May—a round advance, by'r Lady. 1822― Pirate xxxiv, The burgh will be laid under a round fine. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember II. 21, I came home from my ramble with a good round sum in my pocket.
†b. So of quantities. Obs. rare.
1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 129 A Merchant in Spaine dealing for..America, will buy a round quantitie of Germanie commodities or manufactures made there. 1659Rushw. Hist. Collect. I. 464 To get in a good and round supply of Provision into the Citadel.
†c. Ample, generous. Obs.—1
1592Nashe P. Penilesse Wks. (Grosart) II. 64 If any Mecænas..extend some round liberalitie to mee worth the speaking of.
9. a. Brought to a perfect finish or completeness; neatly turned or finished off.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 112 All his sentences be rownd and trimlie framed. 1616B. Jonson Epigr. xcviii, He that is round within himselfe. 1660J. Fell Life Hammond H.'s Wks. 1674 I. 23 His stile, though round and comprehensive, was incumbred sometimes by Parentheses. 1781Cowper Table-t. 517 If sentiment were sacrific'd to sound, And truth cut short to make a period round. 1839–52Bailey Festus 332 Ere yet he could..foresee Life's round career accomplished in the skies. 1840Carlyle Heroes iii. (1858) 263 It is truly a lordly spectacle how this great soul [sc. Shakspere] takes-in all kinds of men and objects,..sets them forth to us in their round completeness.
†b. Thoroughly accomplished; carried out to a proper finish. Obs. rare.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden 37 Wee might haue made round worke, and gone thorough stitch. 1625Bacon Ess., Simulation & Diss. (Arb.) 510 Simulation and Dissimulation commonly carry with them a Shew of Fearfulnesse, which in any Businesse doth spoile the Feathers of round flying vp to the Mark. 1665in Strype Eccl. Mem. IV. 352 These instructions to make round work were backed with a commission to the justices to hear and punish.
c. Of the voice, sounds, etc.: Full and mellow; sonorous, full-sounding.
1832L. Hunt Poems 201 The rounder murmur, fast and flush, Of the escaping gush. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxviii, The merry old gentleman, in a good, round, sturdy voice, commenced [a song]. 1884F. M. Crawford Mr. Isaacs ix, His voice..was wonderfully smooth and round.
III. †10. a. Of blows, etc.: Heavy, hard, severe, swingeing. Obs.
Perh. originally = ‘swinging’: cf. sense 6.
c1380Sir Ferumb. 632 Helmes & hauberkes þay kutte a two, wiþ hure strokes rounde. c1425Cast. Persev. 2069 in Macro Plays 139 To rounde rappys ȝe rape, I rede! 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 16228 Hys Strokys wern so Fel and Rounde. 1586J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 87/2 What a round fall he caught in his owne turne. c1595Capt. Wyatt R. Dudley's Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.) 58 Wee had franklie bestowed upon her verie rownde and sownde vollies of shott. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 20 She gave me a round cuff on the side of my head.
†b. Of fighting: Vigorous; general. Obs.
1601Ld. Mountjoy in Moryson Itin. (1617) ii. 156 The enemy one day..began a round fight with us, close to our trenches. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. iii. xiii. (1821) 368 Seeing them likely to draw on a round Skirmish. 1654Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 65 Lambert..is for having a perfect league with Spain and a round war with these Countries.
c. Of measures, etc.: Summary, vigorous; severe, harsh.
1617Fortescue Papers (Camden) 21 If it will not be fitt that order be given for a speedye and rownde proceeding. 1670Baxter Cure Ch. Div. Pref. 3 It is sharper and rounder dealing than all this, that must cure the Schismes in the Church. 1713Arbuthnot John Bull ii. xiii, A good round Whipping. a1715Burnet Own Time (1735) V. 147 The round proceeding of the Lord Godolphin reconciled many to him.
11. a. Of movement: Quick, brisk, smart. Chiefly in phr. a (good) round pace.
1548Patten Exped. Scotl. F vj, We cam on spedily a both sydes.., but y⊇ Scots indede wt a rounder pace. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Citum agmen,..an armie marchyng a rownde pase. 1631Massinger Emperor East iii. ii, But, when we are entered, We shall on, a good round pace. 1710Lond. Gaz. No. 4779/4 Trots all, and at a round Rate. 1771Mackenzie Man of Feeling xiv, He walked a good round pace. 1806A. Hunter Culina (ed. 3) 135 The same effect will scarcely be produced by four hours round trotting. 1859Tennyson Enid 33 Round was their pace at first, but slacken'd soon. 1870Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 214 He..proceeded on his way at a round trot.
†b. Of delivery: Fluent, easy. Obs.
1565Cooper Thesaurus, Volubilitas linguæ, rounde or quicke speakyng, without impediment or staggerynge. 1573Baret Alv. s.v., A man that hath a rounde and flowing vtterance. 1736Ainsworth Eng.-Lat. Dict. s.v., To have a round delivery, expedite loqui.
†c. Of the tongue: Ready, prompt. Obs.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 115 Those that haue ye inuentiuest heades, for all purposes, and roundest tonges in all matters and places.
12. Plain, honest, straightforward.
1516Bp. Fox Rule of St. Benet A ij b, We haue translated the sayde rule into oure moders tonge, commune, playne, rounde englisshe. 1579E. K. Ded. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. §2 The speach..is round without roughnesse. 1604Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 90, I will a round vn-varnish'd Tale deliuer. 1625Bacon Ess., Truth (Arb.) 501 It will be acknowledged,..that cleare and Round dealing, is the Honour of Mans Nature. 1628Feltham Resolves (1647) 235 It is good to be just and plausible. A round heart will fasten friends, and linke men to thee in the chaines of love. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Round-dealing, Plain, Honest Dealing. [Hence in later Dicts.] 1814Chalmers Evid. iii. 96 They deliver what they have to say in a round and unvarnished manner.
13. a. Of persons: Plain-spoken, not mincing matters, uncompromising, severe in speech († or dealings) with another.
1524State Papers, Hen. VIII, IV. 225 Onles ye see some likelihode that she woll falle to folowe the Kingis mynd, the sonner ye be round with her the better. 1539Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 177 The said bishop hath bene very playn and Rownde with Messieurs of the counseill there. 1579–80North Plutarch (1612) 747 Upon land they [sc. pirates] found he [Cæsar] was very round with them, as also their iudge at Sea. 1607Shakes. Timon ii. ii. 8 He will not heare, till feele: I must be round with him. a1639W. Whately Prototypes ii. xxvi. (1640) 33 He is plaine and duly round with him; a plaine laying open of the fault of the offendor, is necessary to bring him to the sight of his fault. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. lvii. 135 Must he not be round with her, and give her to understand in plain words? 1869― He knew, etc. ii, We all know what a husband means when he resolves to be round with his wife.
b. Similarly without const. Somewhat rare.
1565T. Stapleton Fortr. Faith 112* S. Augustin vehement and rounde as you see, after his maner. 1633Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 50 A man may be mannerly in the form, but must be round in the matter. a1649Winthrop New Eng. (1853) I. 99 The deputy began to be in passion, and told the governour that, if he were so round, he would be round too.
c. Of speech, esp. reproof or chiding.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. ix. xviii. 1763 The Erle maid ansuere rownd, He walde nocht for a thowsand pownd. 1570Henry's Wallace xi. 1362 For all thi round reheirs Thow has na charge. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 216 Your reproofe is something too round. 1641Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 230 To deale by sweet..instructions, gentle admonitions, and sometimes rounder reproofs. 1655Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 234 Card[inal] Mazarine writ a round and peremptory lettre to Monsr de Bourdeaux to conclude y⊇ peace or come away. 1749Fielding Tom Jones viii. iv, Gave her servants a round scold. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. vii. ix. (1849) 428 A memorial addressed to the governor, remonstrating in good round terms on his conduct. 1864M. Eyre Lady's Walks S. France v. (1865) 55 She tells you home truths in the roundest manner.
14. a. Of lies or oaths: Bold, arrant, downright; not toned down in any way.
1645Liberty of Conscience 28 Yet Hushai made a round lie. a1714Sharp Serm. Wks. 1754 IV. 309 Either a round oath, or a curse, or the corruption of one. 1843Dickens Mart. Chuz. xlii, To swear a few round oaths. 1874Slang Dict. 272 Round un, an unblushingly given and well-proportioned lie.
†b. Gross, heinous. Obs. rare.
1638Mede Wks. (1672) 311 If thou makest not thy mouth a glorious organ,..thou art a deep and a round offender.
c. Of assertions, etc.: Positive, unqualified.
1737Gentl. Mag. VII. 494/2 This B. J. is a round Asserter when he said [etc.]. a1814Burney in Boswell's Johnson (Globe) an. 1780 note, This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetic powers of Otway is too round. 1822Scott Peveril xxi, Julian made no answer whatever to this round intimation.
IV.
15. a. In special collocations: round-back, a person having a rounded back; round ball, (a) a kind of musical instrument for beating; (b) a particular form of ball-game; also spec. an early alternative name for base-ball; round barrow Archæol., a Bronze Age burial mound of circular form; round bilge, a curved, as distinct from an angular or stepped, hull; also attrib.; hence round-bilged a.; round bolt, a forelock bolt; round bone (see quots.); round cap, one who wears a round cap; † an undergraduate of Cambridge; round cell Path., used attrib. = next; round-celled a. Path., (of a neoplasm) characterized by round, undifferentiated cells; round coal, coal from which the small has been separated; large or ‘lumpy’ coal; round corn (see quot.); round dropstone = dropstone; roundeye slang, a European, as distinguished from a slant-eye (slant a. 3); round frock (see quot. 1875); hence round-frocked a.; round game, any game, esp. at cards, in which each of a number of persons plays on his own account; round haddock (see quot.); † round hale (see quot. and hale n.5 1); round heels chiefly U.S., rounded heels that allow the wearer to rock backwards easily; usu. transf. and fig. (slang) implying the inability to remain upright, as in an incompetent boxer or sexually compliant woman; hence round-heeled a.; round-heeler; round iron, a bulbous soldering iron; round log U.S., a log that has been felled but not hewn; also attrib.; † round-long a., oblong; round lot U.S., a unit of trade (see quot. 1962); round meal, coarse oatmeal; round O, (a) a ‘round’ lie; (b) a circle or number of persons; (c) Cricket (see quot.); † round peal (see quot.); round-ridging, ploughing in rounded ridges; † round ringing (see quot.); † round salad (?); round seam, seizing, sewing, splice, stern (see quots.); round text, large round-hand; round tilth (see quots.); round timber U.S., timber that has been felled but not hewn; also transf.; † round tire, some part or form of woman's head-dress; round tool (see quot.); round towel, one which has the two ends sewed together; round tower Archæol., one of a number of high circular towers, somewhat tapering from the base to a conical roof-crowned top, which are found in certain countries, esp. Ireland; round trade (see quot.); round turn, work (see quots.); also in colloq. (orig. Naut.) phr. to bring (fetch) up with a round turn, to check or stop suddenly; round wood, (a) = round timber; (b) short logs of small diameter from the tops of pine and spruce trees, used for box-making.
1605B. Jonson Volpone v. i, But your clarissimo, old *round-back, he will crump you like a hog-louse, with the touch.
1688Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 55/2 The third sort consists in striking, as Tabor, Timbrell,..Bell, Cymball, *Round Ball, Jews Harp. 1834R. Carver Bk. of Sports, This game is known under a variety of names. It is sometimes called ‘round ball’, but I believe that ‘base’, or ‘goal ball’ are the names generally adopted in our country. 1856Porter's Spirit of Times 27 Dec. 276/3, I have thought..a statement of my experience as to the Yankee method of playing ‘Base’, or ‘Round’ ball, as we used to call it, may not prove uninteresting. 1871G. R. Cutting Student Life Amherst 112 ‘Wicket’ and ‘Round Ball’ were quite common once, though of late years, ‘Base Ball’ has entirely superseded them.
1869J. Thurnam in Archaeologia XLII. 168, I propose to classify the barrows of this part of England according to the following scheme:..I. Long Barrows. (Stone period)... II. *Round Barrows. (Bronze period). Ibid., In none of the..long barrows..have objects of metal..been found... In the..round barrows, not only are there objects of stone, but..chiefly, those of bronze, and..iron... They may be regarded..as belonging to the Bronze period. 1926M. C. Burkitt Our Early Ancestors vi. 151 In England we have..passage graves (generally called ‘Long Barrows’..) in many places.., and stone kists (generally called Round Barrows from the circular shape of the tumuli). 1975J. G. Evans Environment Early Man Brit. Isles vi. 130 Two Bronze Age round barrows known as the Burton Howes. 1980Encounter May 59/1 Long barrows and causewayed camps signal the territories of the early and middle Neolithic groupings, with the henges and round barrow cemeteries appearing in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age.
1951,1961*Round bilge [see hard chine s.v. hard a. (n.) 22]. 1977Austral. Sailing Jan. 38/2 The round-bilged ‘mouldie’ hull has virtually disappeared.
1703R. Neve City & C. Purchaser 33 *Round-bolts (or long Iron-pins) with a Head at one end, and a Key-hole at the other.
1831Youatt Horse 262 The joint of the upper bone of the thigh with the haunch is commonly called the whirl or *round bone. 1856Stonehenge Brit. Rur. Sports 673/2 Round-Bone Disease is not uncommon... When the horse is lame behind,..the farrier [often] fixes upon the round-bone as the seat of the mischief.
1719Freethinker No. 153 Many a Damsel, who has marry'd a *Round-Cap, has dearly repented of her Bargain... An Undergraduate should no more be allowed to venture upon Wedlock, than an Apprentice.
1889*Round cell [see sense 17]. 1961R. D. Baker Essent. Path. xix. 533 Malignant tumors of the thymus may arise from epithelial structures (carcinoma) or from a fibrous component (fibrosarcoma) but are perhaps most often round-cell tumors and presumably lymphomas.
1873T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 120 A small *round-celled sarcoma of the liver. 1907J. H. Parsons Dis. Eye xxix. 605 Sarcoma is rare; it may be round or spindle-celled, pigmented or non-pigmented. 1961R. D. Baker Essent. Path. xiii. 302 The undifferentiated sarcomas must be classified according to how they look microscopically, and may be described as spindle-celled or round-celled.
1706J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 38 If the Coals be Hewed or Wrought pretty *Round and Large Coals. 1764Museum Rust. III. xx. 84 The common custom, of calling large coals round coals. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 207 Round Coal, coal in large lumps, either hand-picked or after passing over screens to take out the small.
1889Cent. Dict. s.v. Corn, *Round corn, a trade-name for the grain of a class of yellow maize with small, round, very hard kernels.
1668Charleton Onomast. 252 Stalagmites,..*Round Dropstone.
1967Guardian 16 Aug. 6/5 Many Europeans have been assaulted simply because they were ‘*roundeyes’. 1977‘J. Le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy vi. 125 In the East a roundeye could live all his life in the same block and never have the smallest notion of the secret tic-tac on his doorstep.
1797Sporting Mag. X. 98 Members of the Agriculturean Club, or *Round-Frock Society. 1875Parish Sussex Dial., Round-frock, a loose frock or upper garment of coarse material, generally worn by country-people over their other clothes.
1809W. Stevenson Agric. Survey 88 The ‘*round-frocked farmers’ (for they pride themselves on frequenting the markets in the dress of their forefathers).
1790Scott in Lockhart (1837) I. vi. 169 At night [we] laugh, chat, and play *round games at cards. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. i, Speculation is a round game; the players see little or nothing of their cards at first starting. 1883Ld. R. Gower Reminisc. I. 122 What splendid round games we used to play in the evenings!
188319th Cent. July 162 The fish intended for the table are not eviscerated, hence they are called ‘*round’ haddocks to distinguish them from the others which are called ‘kit’ haddocks.
1607J. Carpenter Pl. Mans Plough 209 The *Round-Hale is the plaining and polishing of the carnall mans actions.
1957J. Kerr Please don't eat Daisies 118, I know I'm just a broad, Mike. I'm a *round-heeled babe. 1975‘R. Rostand’ D'Artagnan Signature (1976) xiv. 83 You said that as if I'm some round-heeled little chippie who dragged you to the floor.
1927Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 67/2 Others contend that ‘a *round-heeler’ was applied to street-walkers many years ago.
1926Abbott & Weaver Love 'em & leave 'Em iii. 109 You want people to say you got *round heels. Why don't you go on the streets and be done with it? 1926Variety 29 Dec. 7/4 A push-over, which means a fighter with round heels along cauliflower alley, was, by the same token, a dame on rockers. 1929E. Wilson I thought of Daisy i. 16 Myra Busch is a push-over!.. She's got round heels! 1944R. Chandler Lady in Lake v. 35 You'd think..I'd..pick me a change in types at least. But little roundheels over there ain't even that. 1963‘G. Bagby’ Murder's Little Helper (1964) viii. 84 Little Miss Roundheels..specialized in gentlemen who were otherwise committed. 1975P. de Vries Glory of Humming Bird xiii. 192 Her famous round heels did not seem to rule out a stern morality on other counts.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2242/1 Plumbing and Soldering Tools...d, *round iron.
1869S. Haycraft Hist. Elizabethtown, Kentucky (1921) ii. 15 In the winter time they met in the *round log cabins with dirt floors. 1871E. Eggleston Hoosier Schoolmaster 95 He came upon a queer little cabin built of round logs. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xxxii. 329 Phelps's was one of these little one-horse cotton plantations..round-log kitchen.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xviii. 49 Their shape is *round-long and somwhat square.
1942Sun (Baltimore) 27 Feb. 17/5 The rates charged by brokers for ‘*round lots’ (units of 100 shares) range from 3 cents a share..to 13 cents. 1962S. Strand Marketing Dict. 638 Round lot, a trading unit. 1) On the New York Stock Exchange, 100 shares. 2) On the Chicago Board of Trade, 5000 bushels.
a1843Southey Doctor Interch. xxiv. (1847) VII. 79 It was *round Meal. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 365 There is no doubt that the round meal makes the best porridge when properly made.
1605London Prodigal iii. ii, My maisters mind is bloody, thats a *round O (aside), And therefore, syr, intreatie is but vaine. 1845Athenæum Feb. 110 The playhouse additions and omissions were all very well for the round O of admirers who went to see and hear. 1863C. Reade Hard Cash vii, Alfred told her ‘the round O’, which had yielded to ‘the duck's-egg’, and was becoming obsolete, meant the cipher set by the scorer against a player's name, who is out without making a run.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 462/2 A *Round Peale, is to ring the Bells what space of [time] the Ringers please.
1786Young's Ann. Agriculture V. 107 We reject up-setting, which is here called *round-ridging..; and we plough the land flat.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 462/2 *Round Ringing, when the Bells are up at set, that is with their mouths upright, both in the Fore stroak and Back stroak.
1578Lyte Dodoens 422 They do mingle it amongst other herbes, in *rounde salades, and Iunkettes with egges.
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 17 Twyne, a munke seame, a *round seame, a suit of sayles. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 598 What is called round-seam sewing.., which permits the leather to expand but in one direction, when the needle is passed through it, namely, upwards. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 581 Round-Seam, the edges or selvedges sowed together, without lapping.
1841R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 8 Seizing the parts together with a *round seizing. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 581 Round Seizing, this is made by a series of turns, with the end passed through the riders, and made fast snugly.
1879Encycl. Brit. X. 692 *Round sewing or ordinary glove stitch, piqué stitch, and prick seam.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Splice, *Round-Splice, is when a rope's end is so let into another, that they shall be as firm as if they were but one rope. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 582 Round Splice, one which hardly shows itself, from the neatness of the rope and the skill of the splicer.
c1850Rudim. Nav. (Weale) 143 *Round stern, the stern of a vessel whose bottom, wales, &c. are wrought quite aft, and unite in the stern-post.
1766Serle Art Writing 6 The large *Round Text..cannot be considered as a distinct Hand. 1849Lytton Caxtons 22 Designed for the less ambitious purposes of round text and multiplication.
1763Museum Rust. I. 112 They keep their lands constantly cropped without fallow, which they call sowing a *round-tilth. 1796Boys Agric. Kent (1813) 73 The..rich sandy loam..cultivated under the round tilth system of East Kent, viz. Beans, Wheat, Barley.
1874J. F. Rusling Across Amer. xxvii. 429 Snow galleries consumed in all nearly forty-five million feet, board measure, of sawed timber, and over a million and a quarter feet of *round timber. 1905Bull. Bureau of Forestry (U.S.) No. 61. 45 Round timber, pine trees which have not been turpentined. 1964Times Rev. Industry Mar. 56/1 The firm has arranged with Boys and Boden to reopen the sawmill section of British Sawmills at Welshpool from March 1 for the conversion of round timber. 1972Gloss. Terms Timber (B.S.I.) 8 Round timber, felled trees, logs or poles.
1657Reeve God's Plea 123 How much girdles, gorgets,..slippers, *roundtires, sweetballs, rings,..do cost in our daies, many a sighing husband doth know by the years account.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Round-tool, a round-nose chisel..for making concave moldings.
1845Ainsworth's Mag. VIII. 71, I at last became quite tired of him and his string of repetitions, or *round towel speaking. 1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 452 A pulley is firmly fastened to the foot of the bed (an ordinary round towel is a useful one). 1908G. Jekyll Children & Gardens ii. 12 If it can have a small pantry containing a water supply and a sink,..and a round towel handy, it will be better than if these necessaries were in the kitchen itself.
1827G. Higgins Celtic Druids Pref. p. xlvi, Throughout Scotland and Ireland there are scattered great numbers of *Round Towers. a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) II. 14 The Early Irish remains are mainly of three classes: the..domestic buildings of the monks; the oratories and churches; and the round towers.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Round-trade, a term on the river Gaboon and neighbourhood for a description of barter, comprising a large assortment of miscellaneous articles.
1841R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 53 Haul well out, and take a *round-turn with the earing round the cringle. 1846A. Young Naut. Dict. s.v., To take a round turn of a rope, means to pass it completely round any thing in order to hold on. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 582 Round-Turn in the Hawse, a term implying the situation of the two cables of a ship, which, when moored, has swung the wrong way three times successively; if after this she come round till her head is directed the same way as at first, this makes a round turn and elbow. a1910in Amer. Speech (1979) LIV. 99 Round turn,..‘fetched up with a round turn’. Suddenly. 1920Galsworthy In Chancery ii. vi. 175 The end came swiftly on the 20th of January with a telegram... It brought him up with a round turn. 1961F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 174 Round turn, Bring up with a, stop someone or something abruptly.
1910Timber Trades Jrnl. 8 Jan. 37/1 The wood shipped from Archangel is the now well-known *roundwood. 1930Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. 3 Apr. 8 So far as the ‘round wood’ or ‘pulp wood’ is concerned, most of the Aberdeen contracts for the season are now fixed-up. 1971Country Life 25 Nov. 1450/1 The cash value..from the sales of roundwood and timber..in East Anglia.
1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. I. 16 This we call *round work, because the ploughman begins in the middle of so much ground as he intends for one broad-land.
b. In names of plants, etc.: round Adam's apple (see Adam's apple 1); round aristolochia, birthwort, = round heartwort; round dock, † (a) monk's rhubarb; (b) dial., the common mallow (by error for round hock); round edder (see edder n.); round heartwort, a variety of birthwort (Aristolochia rotunda), having round roots; round radish, the common radish; round rape, round turnip, the common turnip.
1729Dampier's Voy. III. 444 *Round Adam's Apple. Its Flowers five leaved with Purple Veins; the Fruit round.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 15 Aristolochia is of three sortes. The fyrst..may be named in englishe *round..astrolochia or round hertworte. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Aristolochia, The round [aristolochia] is of a sub-acrid..Taste.
1551Turner Herbal (1568) 43 Aristolochia rotunda..may be called in Englyshe..*round byrthwurte. 1725Fam. Dict. s.v. Wounds, Aloes, Round Birthwort.
1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 27 The great, common *round Dock, which many People cultivate. 1825Jennings Dial. W. Eng. 64 The round-dock leaves are used at this day as a remedy..for the sting of a nettle.
1729W. Dampier Voy. III. 449 *Round Edder. Has a round cordated milky Leaf. 1548*round hertworte [see round aristolochia]. 1580Blundevil Horsem. v. 5 b, Take of..round Hartwood, one ounce.
1611Cotgr., Rave ronde,..the *round Raddish.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 113 The great *round rape called commonly a turnepe. 1578Lyte Dodoens 593 The round Rape or turnep at the beginning hath great rough brode leaues.
1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Rapa, *Round Garden Turnip, with a white Root.
c. In names of fishes, etc., as round fish, fish of a rounded (as opposed to flat) form; round-fish, (a) the pilot-fish, Coregonus quadrilateralis; (b) the common carp; round herring, landcrab, -mouth, -oyster, tail (see quots. and ns.).
1630R. Johnson Kingd. & Commonw. 124 Upon the coast of Bretaigne, where it is muddy, store of *round fish, as Lamprey, Conger, Haddocke. 1895Daily News 25 Nov. 5/3 The immature fishes caught by line are almost entirely round fishes, such as haddock and cod.
1836Sir J. Richardson Fauna Bor. Amer. III. 204 Our voyagers named it the *round-fish, and I have given it the specific appellation of quadrilateralis. 1882Jordan & Gilbert Synop. Fishes North America 298 C[oregonus] quadrilateralis,..Pilot-fish;..Shad Waiter, Round-fish.
Ibid. 263 Etrumeus... *Round Herrings.
1729W. Dampier Voy. III. 419 The *Round Land-Crab. Runs Side-ways and Swiftly.
1886Athenæum May 618/3 The *round-mouths, such as the lamprey, which differ from all other vertebrates in the constitution of their mouth.
1681Grew Musæum i. vi. ii. 144 The *Round-Oyster with similar sides produced from an oblique Navle.
1836Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 32 The posterior edge [of the tail] becomes convex;..which has caused this fish [bull-trout] to be designated in the Annan by the name of *Roundtail when old, and Sea-Trout when young.
1832J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & M. 159 The *Round tip (Ditula rotundana..). Wings six lines, very bluntly rounded, smoke-coloured.
Ibid. 114 The *Round Wing (Cabera rotundaria..)..; wings one inch one-twelfth to one-fourth, snow-white, rounded.
16. a. Parasynthetic combs., as round-backed, round-barred, round-barrelled, round-bellied, round-bodied, round-bottomed, round-browed, round-budded, round-celled, round-cheeked, round-cornered, round-edged, round-ended, round-eyed, round-footed, round-hatted, round-hoofed, round-lipped, round-necked, round-paned, round-pollened, round-soled, round-spectacled, round-sterned, round-walled, etc.; also round-looking, round-made, round-shapen; round-arched, -eared, etc.
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 403 If the field has a *round-backed form, the dunghill should be placed on the top of the height.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 143 The upstart of your *round-barred, sun-round tail!
1682Lond. Gaz. No. 1768/4 A white grey Roan Gelding,..*round barrel'd, full gascoign'd. 1828Scott F.M. Perth viii, A strong black horse,..strong limbed, well-coupled, and round-barrelled.
1611Cotgr., Matrac, a..wide, *round-bellied bottle. 1738Chambers Cycl., Retort,..a round-bellied vessel, either of earth or glass. 1756Nugent Gr. Tour, Germany II. 323 Large, round-bellied vessels of great burthen. 1919J. Masefield Reynard the Fox 9 Round-bellied like a drinking-cup.
1963R. P. Dales Annelids ii. 42 Sternapsis is a small, *round-bodied burrower in which the septa have mostly broken down.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxix. 93 The *round-bottomed phial sometimes used by chemists. 1909B. Lubbock Deep Sea Warriors 37 Three men came.., each shouldering a ‘round-bottomed chest’, as the sailor's bag is called. 1964V. J. Chapman Coastal Veg. iii. 73 Round-bottomed flasks are completely filled with sea water.
1921*Round-browed [see firm-lipped s.v. firm a. C. 1 b]. 1925W. de la Mare Two Tales 95 Minute plants, their round-budded clusters showing.
1605Marston Dutch Courtezan i. i. sig. B 1, A softe plumpe *round cheekt froe. 1871Geo. Eliot Let. 17 June (1956) V. 153, I hope she will be round-cheeked and strong.
1704Dict. Rust. (1726) s.v. Mallows, Great white Roots, from whence arise *round-corner'd Leaves. 1967Karch & Buber Offset Processes xii. 503 Round-cornered cards are usually purchased already round-cornered, die cut and absolutely rectangular.
1843Holtzapffel Turning I. 228 A piece of flat iron..is thinned..by..a *round-edged fuller.
1951Whitby & Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) xx. 314 The Clostridia in their most typical form are straight or slightly curved *round-ended bacilli 0·4µ–1·2µ × 3µ–8µ. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 2 Feb. (Suppl.) 8/3 Square or round-ended sticks are also useful..in building up a design.
1848Dickens Dombey xxiii, Rob the *round-eyed..looked on and listened. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 160 Yellow eyes incomprehensible with thin slits To round-eyed us.
14..in Harrow. Hell Introd. 25 After the asse, well-mouthid, well-wyndyd,..and *rownd-foted.
1962Times 21 Dec. 10/7 A *round-hatted drummer.
1593Shakes. Ven. & Ad. l, *Round-hoofed, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long,..Look, what a horse should have, he did not lack. 1672J. Josselyn New. Eng. Rarities 20 The Maccarib,..a kind of Deer, as big as a Stag, round hooved. 1898R. Bridges Prometh. Wks. I. 50 Round-hoofed or such as tread with cloven foot?
1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 19 The little *round-limbed creature that had been leaning against her knees.
1906Hardy Dynasts ii. iv. i. 230 The Archduchess, a fair, blue-eyed, full-figured, *round-lipped maiden.
1958S. Spender Fool & Princess 161 *Round-looking lips.
1820Scott Abbot xx, The falconer..mounted his stout, *round-made, trotting nag.
1776Da Costa Elem. Conchol. 222 Both the *round-mouthed [shells] and these.
1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xxxi. 198 Jean wore a new *round-necked, sleeveless..dress in tangerine linen. 1974Country Life 17 Jan. 107/1 A round-necked, sleeveless top.
1661R. W. Conf. Charac. (1860) 37 The byasse of all his wooden headed *roundnodled associates.
1937de la Mare & Jones This Year, Next Year 39/1 Through its *round-paned window.
1704Dict. Rust. (1726) s.v. Ranunculus, *Round-pointed Leaves, of a pale, yellow blush on the inside. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 330 Driving a round-pointed bar into a sort of loam.
1909W. Bateson Mendel's Princ. Heredity i. v. 93 It was..more usual to find whites exclusively produced by the cross of two extracted F2 whites, long-pollened and *round-pollened respectively.
1852Mundy Antipodes (1857) 195 Many of these..were mounted on rough, *round-ribbed cart mares. 1874J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl v. 94 By well-bred I..mean..a long,..round-ribbed, and broad loined dog.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxii. 100 Þaire mouthes er *round schapen, lyke a hors scho.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §77 The .ix. propertyes of a foxe. The..thyrde, to be *rounde-syded. 1862‘Vanderdecken’ Yacht Sailor 143 A beamy, round-sided vessel.
1690Lond. Gaz. No. 2579/4 A *round-skirted Saddle stitch'd with Silver.
1964W. L. Goodman Hist. Woodworking Tools 73 It is a *round-soled plane, 14in. long, with a type (b) mouth carving enclosing the date 1706.
1945W. de la Mare Burning-Glass 53 *Round-spectacled Chardin's Passion for life.
1897J. L. Allen Choir Invisible xiii. 195 Where some *round-sterned packet from New England or New Amsterdam was unloading its cargo.
1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. 81 The person's boots..were neat, *round-toed Wellingtons.
1866Stephens Runic Mon. I. 305 Bone Combs,..more or less *roundtopt. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 12 The hills around Auckland..are nearly all round-topped.
1683Lond. Gaz. No. 1837/4 He is a *round trussed Man.
1677Ibid. No. 1208/4 Of a low stature, *round visaged.
1931G. O. Russell Speech & Voice 67 A..*round-walled organ pipe.
1605Shakes. Lear i. i. 14 She grew *round womb'd, and had..a Sonne for her Cradle.
b. In generic or specific names of animals, birds, etc., as round-billed, round-bodied, round-crested, round-furrowed, round-horned, round-lipped, round-mouthed, round-tailed, round-toed, round-winged.
1688Phil. Trans. XVII. 990 These Birds more than any other *Round-bill'd Birds seem to grope for their Meat in Cow-dung. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) II. 408 One species of round-billed water fowl.
1752J. Hill Hist. Anim. 16 Tænia teres, the *round-bodied Tænia: it is common in the mud of ponds and ditches.
1748Catesby Nat. Hist. (1754) 94 The *round-crested Duck... The head is crowned with a very large circular crest. 1783Latham Gen. Synop. Birds II. i. 362 Round-crested Flycatcher: the crown of the head is furnished with a remarkable rounded crest.
1681Grew Musæum 142 The *Round Furrow'd Escallop, with smooth Shells or Valves.
1782Jefferson Notes Virginia (1787) 88 The flat-horned elk, or original. The *round-horned elk.
1776Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 52 *Roundlipped [whale]. The character of this species is to have the lower lip broader than the upper, and of a semi-circular form. 1801Shaw Gen. Zool. II. ii. 495 Under-jawed Mysticete... Round-lipped Whale.
1945Step & Wells Shell Life 228 Such a form as Littorina rudis ..was probably the ancestor of the *Round-mouthed Snail (Cyclostoma elegans), which is clearly a marine snail that has been so modified that it lives far inland on the dry chalk-downs.
1766Complete Farmer s.v. Insect X. 3/2 Those *round-tailed worms, which are found in the intestines of men, horses, &c. 1781Pennant Hist. Quadrup. II. 540 Manati, Round-tailed. 1804Shaw Gen. Zool. V. i. 228 Round-tailed Chub.
1752Hill Hist. Anim. 112 The *round-toed Rana, with the body narrow behind.
1907R. South Moths Brit. Isles 1st Ser. 175 (heading) The *round-winged muslin. 1908Ibid. 2nd Ser. 257 In most of such aberrations the tips of the fore wings are rather more rounded than in typical specimens, and these are referable to ab. rotundaria, Haworth (Round-winged Wave).
c. In names of plants, etc., as round-fruited, round-podded, round-rooted, round-seeded. Also round-leaved.
1855Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 296 *Round-fruited Rush. Stem erect,..capsule roundish.
1725Fam. Dict. s.v. Blowing, The *Round-Podded of Carnations..will begin to crack their Husks on one side.
1611Cotgr., Pied-poul, the *round-rooted, or Onion-rooted Crowfoot. 1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Raphanus, The small round-rooted Radish is not very common in England. Ibid. s.v. Aristolochia, The round-rooted Birthwort.
1729Dampier's Voy. III. 442 The *Round seeded Sensible. 1970Daily Tel. 10 Jan. 7/3 Round-seeded peas lack the flavour of the wrinkled varieties.
17. In comb. with nouns used attrib.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 666 Where She..may rear Her round-Front Palace in a place secure. 1688Holme Armoury iii. 358/2 The fourth [sort of turner's tool] is termed a round edge Grooving Hook. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Nails, Round-head Nails, proper to fasten in Hinges. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 111 One which is convex, is sometimes called a roundsole [plane]. 1851–3Tomlinson's Cycl. Arts & Manuf. (1866) I. 642/1 Round edge equalling file, and round-edge joint file. 1856Round-bend [see Limerick 2 b]. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1995/1 Round-joint File, a kind of clockmaker's file. Ibid., Round-nose chisel, Round-nose plane. 1889D. J. Hamilton Text-bk. Path. I. 363 The large round-cell sarcoma. 1895Model Steam Eng. 90 It is..‘roughed down’ with a round-end tool to the required form. 1936J. Steinbeck In Dubious Battle iv. 64 A roundwick Rochester lamp. 1940E. Molloy Electric Wiring vi. 156 The British Standard Specification for domestic plugs and sockets is confined to the round-pin type. 1941H. I. Chapelle Boatbuilding 44 The round-bottom model is considered by most amateur builders too difficult to construct. 1946Fortune Apr. 142/1 [He] obviously doesn't want the job or he wouldn't have put in any round-figure bid that size. 1956‘J. Wyndham’ Seeds of Time 231 The doctor's round-figure price made him frown. 1967Karch & Buber Offset Processes xii. 504 Perforating machines allow round-hole perforating, like that found on postage stamps and grocery store stamps. 1968J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 160 Later wagons, built after 1850 or so, had round-section ironwork. 1970Which? Sept. 280/2 We have criticised this plug before since it will fit into a 5-amp round-pin socket which leaves the appliance unearthed. 1976Woman's Day (U.S.) Nov. 158 Following construction detail, assemble legs and stretcher with 3{pp} roundhead stove bolts and nuts. 1979Nature 7 June 537/1 (caption) The 5-doxylstearic acid..was dried down from chloroform/methanol (2:1 v/v) solution in a round-bottom flask. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Nov. 746/1 The round-hole capsules resemble round-hole tea ceremony rooms.
Add:[II.] [9.] d. Of a wine: having a good balance between taste, smell, and alcoholic strength; full and mellow. Also of spirits.
1975P. V. Price Taste of Wine v. 78/3 Is the wine moderately supple and round or does it seem slightly harsh or thin? 1984Sunday Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 16 Sept. 18/3 It [sc. whisky] was smooth, round (‘we never say sweet, or people think of sugar’) and hit the spot with a slow, warm embrace.
▸ round file n. humorous (orig. U.S.) (with the) a waste-paper bin.
1949Los Angeles Times 15 Nov. i. 19/5 Out and out propaganda... I've filed them in the ‘*round file’. 1993Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 9 Oct. 18 A romantic adventure-comedy that might drive you to drink is the sort of thing we get every week here.., and usually they get filed away in the round file. 2006Halifax (Nova Scotia) Daily News (Nexis) 27 Jan. 12 Whoever was involved with this silliness should toss it into the round file sitting under their desk.
▪ IV. round, adv. and prep.|raʊnd|
[f. round a. or n.1 In early use perh. for around, after F. en rond, au rond.
In both adv. and prep. the strengthened forms all round, right round, round and round, are common.]
A. adv. (For idiomatic uses with bring, come, get, go, see these verbs.)
I.
1. a. Of motion: With a circular course, so as to return again to the point of departure. Also transf. of time, and in phr. round and round.
a1290Beket 2125 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 167 Al round it orn aboute is heued, ase it were a dyademe, And al-round þare⁓abouten it lay. 1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Orbis, To go rounde or in a rynge. 1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 712 Loud it grones and grumbles, It rouls, and roars, and round-round-round it rumbles. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Circulation, The vapour..seemes to goe round, or circle-wise. 1743P. Francis tr. Horace, Odes iv. xi. 21 Mecænas counts a length of years To roll in bright succession round. 1746― Epist. ii. i. 289 As the year brought round the jovial day. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. i. xvii, It ate the food..And round and round it flew. 1863Whittier Mithridates at Chios 32 Once more the slow dumb years Bring their avenging cycle round. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 253 Thus we go round and round in a circle and make no progress. 1898A. B. Gomme Tradit. Games II. 143 Round and round went the gallant, gallant ship. 1936Billboard 11 Jan. 12/4 That latest contagion, Music Goes Round and Round,..is selling at the rate of 16,000 copies daily. 1977Washington Post 26 Dec. c8/2 The music sells the movie. The movie sells the albums. The TV and radio and newspapers sell both. Round and round we go.
fig.1704Swift Tale Tub Pref., He may ring the Changes as far as it will go, and vary his Phrase 'till he has talk'd round.
b. To each in turn of an assembled company (orig. as seated at a table); hence, with (successive) inclusion of all those belonging to a company, body of persons, etc.
1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. iv. 97 A health Gentlemen, Let it goe round. 1713Swift Cadenus & Vanessa 350 She nam'd the ancient Heroes round, Explain'd for what they were renown'd. 1786Burns Halloween vii, The auld Guidwife's weel-hoordet nits Are round an' round divided. 1826Lamb Pop. Fallacies ix, When a money subscription is going round. 1863Speke Disc. Nile 36 One pig, enough to feed the whole camp round. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. (1886) 5 Sometimes he would call for glasses round.
†c. From all sides; all over. Obs. rare.
1634Shirley Opportunity v. ii, Pis. Looke better on me. Lau. We have seene you round, Sir. 1726Swift Gulliver i. ii, When he alighted, he surveyed me round with great Admiration. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xiv, After he had for a good while examined the horse round, finding him blind of one eye, he would have nothing to say to him.
†d. On all four feet. Obs.
1687Lond. Gaz. No. 2290/4 A black..Colt..shoed round. 1711Ibid. No. 4875/4 Shod all round. 1768Wesley Jrnl. 31 Oct., I procured one to shoe my horse all round.
fig.1731–8Swift Polite Conv. 95 This is his Fourth Wife; then he has been shod round.
e. Through, throughout; from beginning to end.
Chiefly in phr. all the year round (also used attrib. or as n. phr.). The use approaches that of the prep. following the n.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Yellow, The flowers of the acacia..may be kept all the year round. 1851Mayhew London Lab. II. 112 Some [buyers] collect the skins all the year round. 1872Dublin Univ. Mag. Feb. 224 The San Franciscans now eat the best of grapes, cherries, and pears, almost the year round. 1883Hardy in Graphic Summer 4/2 One of those curious summer shelters sometimes erected on exposed points of view, called an all-the-year-round. 1893K. A. Sanborn S. California 188 Pasadena is the greatest all-the-year-round health-resort in the world. 1910Busy Man's Mag. Feb. 58/2 Vancouver is becoming an all-the-year-round resort. 1939G. Greene Confidential Agent iv. i. 269 We want to make it an all-the-year-round resort. 1963Times 5 Feb. 7/5 Equipped for all-the-year-round motoring.
f. So as to include or visit in succession a number of places or persons.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 117 Seeking, hirpling round from time to time, Her harmless sticks from hedges hung with rime. 1861[see go v. 90 c]. 1884S. Dowell Taxation & Taxes (1888) III. 33 Employing a number of young men to go round with samples. 1897Anstey Trav. Comp. ii, Mr. Podbury, who's kindly volunteered to conduct us round.
g. = about adv. 9. (Chiefly U.S.)
1857–8in W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) III. 676 The Doctor has evidently been ‘round some’. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. xvi, Those unwholesome..creatures, that look not fit to be round among live folks. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 111 There were no wild beasts, or robbers, likely to be ‘round’. 1894M. Dyan Man's Keeping (1899) 25 That sickening old brute..has been fooling round making up to the General and Mrs. Yorke lately.
2. a. In a ring or circle; so as to encompass, encircle, or enclose something; on each wall or side (of a room, etc.).
a1290[see sense 1]. a1539Cart. Rievalle (Surtees) 341 The iii romys north therof seelyd round with waynscot. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Orbem facere,..to stande rounde, that they may be ready for their enemies euery way. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 171 Vntill my mis-shap'd Trunke, that beares this Head, Be round impaled with a glorious Crowne. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 234 The..principall houses were stucke round on the outside with lampes. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 90 How first began..the ambient Aire wide interfus'd Imbracing round this florid Earth. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. i. §1 Fields planted round with plane-trees. 1797Coleridge Kubla Khan 7 So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round. 1817Keats ‘I stood tip-toe’ 166 He had found A little space, with boughs all woven round. 1859Tennyson Geraint & Enid 335 My followers ring him round. 1893C. G. Leland Mem. I. 36 A hall, hung round with many old family portraits.
b. So as to form a ring or circle; so as to have a circular form or section.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 589 His heer was by his erys ful round yshorn. 1542–3Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 6 Pinnes..shal..haue..the point well and rounde filled canted and sharped. 1580Blundevil Horsem. v. 40 b, When the horse lieth down, he spreadeth himselfe abrode, not being able to lie round togither on his bellie.
3. a. In every direction from a centre; on all sides; all about.
c1440York Myst. xxx. 165 He will..refe vs þe remys þat are rounde. c1500World & Child 5 For I am kynge and well knowen in these realmes rounde. 1513Douglas æneis v. vi. 79 As this ȝonkeir heiron tred and fut sett,..wenyng hym victour round. 1626Bacon Sylva §201 All Sounds move Round; That is to say; on all Sides. 1719Young Busiris i. i, Which will rise in flames At the least breath, and spread destruction round. 1781Morison in Sc. Paraphr. xxxv. 5 As dew upon the tender herb diffusing fragrance round. 1808Scott Marm. i. x, As Lord Marmion cross'd the court, He scatter'd angels round. 1852M. Arnold Tristram & Iseult 247 All round the forest sweeps off, black in shade. 1884Graphic 18 Oct. 398/1 We have managed to annoy foreigners all round.
b. By measurement in all directions from a given centre.
1656H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) 112 Within 20 miles round off London. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. iii, Scarce a farmer's daughter within ten miles round but what had found him successful and faithless. 1833H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. vi. 93 They will wake up all the sheep in the pens for a mile round. 1842L. S. Costello Pilgr. Auvergne II. 158 Hundreds of peasants..hurrying to mass from every village for leagues round.
c. In the neighbourhood or vicinity; round about.
1785Burns Cotter's Sat. Nt. iv, Belyve the elder bairns come drappin in, At Service out, amang the Farmers roun'. 1865Kingsley Herew. xli, Hardly a French knight or baron round but had a blood-feud against him.
4. a. By a circuitous, roundabout, or indirect way or course.
1668Pepys Diary 7 July, We are fain to go round by Newgate because of Fleet-bridge being under rebuilding. 1718S. Sewall Diary 2 July, Lt. Govr. came home round in Mr. Gore's Calash. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. x, The horse⁓way..was five miles round, though the foot-way was but two. 1801Farmer's Mag. Nov. 396 For exporting cattle, too large for sending round by the heads of the Friths. 1850Mrs. Browning Rom. Swan's Nest xv, Ellie..rose up gaily,..And went homeward, round a mile.
b. Denoting arrival or presence at some point or place reached by an indirect route.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 175 The rest [of the seaports] are Possessed by the Malabar Raja's round to Porto Novo. 1755Washington Writ. (1889) I. 208 Doctor Craik is expected round to Alexandria in a vessel. 1822Shelley Prose Wks. (1880) IV. 270, I suppose..that you will not be round here until the middle of summer. 1841J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 97 The carriage was ordered round. 1897Flandrau Harvard Episodes 179 If I'd only known.., I could have asked some of the fellows round to meet you.
5. Cricket.
a. In the direction lying behind the batsman; ‘to leg’.
1857Hughes Tom Brown ii. viii, A beautifully pitched ball for the outer stump, which the..unfeeling Jack..hits right round to leg for five. 1882Daily Telegr. 20 May, Murdoch hit him round and drove him for a brace of 4's.
b. = round-arm 1.
1859All Year Round No. 13. 305 Southey bowled slow twisters at one end, and I bowled ‘round’ at the other.
II.
6. With a rotatory or whirling movement.
c1500World & Child 79 Lo, my toppe I dryve in same,—Se, it torneth rounde! 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Roto, to tourne a thing rounde like a wheele. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. v. ii. 20 He that is giddie thinks the world turns round. 1638R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. ii. (1818) 65 Who will drink till th' world run round-a. 1679M. Prance Add. Narrative 26 The Compendiarist's head turns round. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 509 The whole World is in Motion, rouling round and round. 1782Cowper J. Gilpin 41 Smack went the whip, round went the wheels. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. iii. 30, I struck my staff into the snow, and turned it round and round. 1869Ruskin Q. of Air i. §39 Their [dolphins'] black backs roll round with exactly the slow motion of a water-wheel.
7. In a curve, spirally.
1611Cotgr., Chantourné, turned round, as the shell of a snayle.
8. a. In the opposite direction; to or towards the opposite quarter.
a1765Sir Andrew Barton i. iii. in Percy Reliques II. 177 King Henrye frownd, and turned him rounde. 1787‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsem. (1809) 38 If his horse has stopt and turned round five thousand times with him. 1842Macaulay Horatius lviii, Round turned he, as not deigning Those craven ranks to see. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 464 Socrates looked round at us as his manner was.
b. To the opposite view; to a different opinion, frame of mind, etc.
1825–[see come v. 71 c]. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! xv, He submitted for the nonce, and Cary thought..that he had talked him pretty well round. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxi, The only way to bring him round would be to show him what was for his own interest. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. §2. 461 England veered round again to Protestantism under Elizabeth. a1887Jefferies Field & Hedgerow (1892) 318 It was no little matter to coax him round to unchain his vessel.
III. †9. a. Roundly; with a round or full utterance; in round terms. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Pard. T. Prol. 3 In chirche whan I preche, I peyne me to haue an hauten speche; I rynge it oute as rounde as eny belle. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Clausulæ rotundæ, full and perfitte clauses of sentenses fallyng rounde. 1575Gamm. Gurton iv. ii[i], Yet take hede, I say, I must tel you my tale round. 1682N. O. Boileau's Lutrin ii. 73 Thus spoke our Lover whining, plain and round. 1780Mirror No. 97 They should be taught..to speak their own language rough and round.
b. spec. (See quot.)
1774Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist. 65/2 When a bird is thus become perfect in his lesson, he is said to sing his song round, or in all its varieties of passages, which he connects together, and executes without a pause.
†10.
a. With a free or easy motion; with celerity or freedom. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Sir Thopas 175 His steede..gooth an Ambil in the way Ful softely and rounde. 1586B. Young Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iv. 189 We are after meate merier, giue more pleasant aunsweres, and goe rounder away with anie matter, then when we are fasting. 1597T. Morley Introd. Mus. 27 You must begin againe and sing..in halfe tyme (that is, as rounde againe, as you did before).
†b. Copiously; without restraint. Obs. rare.
1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 64 Round fel I too weeping,..with al eke thee sorroful houshold.
†c. Openly; in a straightforward manner. rare.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 139, I went round to worke, And (my yong Mistris) thus I did bespeake. 1650Milton Tenure Kings 32, I question not the lawfullness of raising War.., for no Protestant Church but have don it round and maintain'd it lawful.
†d. round or rattle, in any case. Obs.—1
a1670Hacket Abp. Williams ii. (1692) 206 In conjunction with them, or out of conjunction; round or rattle, if he were rich he must be a booty, or a compounder.
11. Comb. (in various senses), as round-blazing, round-burning, round-rolling, round-turning adjs.; round-stirring n.; round-beset, round-fenced, round-girdled, adjs.; round-spun a., of strong stuff; sturdy.
1581Mulcaster Positions xxvi, This exercise do I like best of any rounde stirring without the dores. 1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. 130, I see not how, in those round-blazing beams [etc.]. 1598Ibid. ii. ii. i. 38 Though round-fenc't with guard of armed Knights. 1611Sec. Maidens Trag. iii. i, The house is round-beset with armed men. 1642H. More Song Soul i. i. 60 Round-turning whirlwinds on Olympus steep. 1729Savage Wanderer iii. 19 Yet reddening, yet round-burning up the air, From the white cliff, her feet slow-rising glare! 1783Cowper Epitaph on Hare 29 Eight years and five round-rolling moons He thus saw steal away. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xii, He's weel kend for a round-spun Presbyterian, and a ruling elder to boot. 1878O. Wilde Ravenna 5 A moon of fire Round-girdled with a purple marriage-ring. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts, & Flowers 25 Am I not blind, at the round-turning mill?
B. prep.
1. a. Of motion: So as to encircle, or make the complete circuit of; so as to go around. Also in phrases round and round, round-the-world.
1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 165 Full thirtie times hath Phœbus Cart gon round Neptunes salt Wash. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 661 Those have thir course to finish, round the Earth. 1727–46Thomson Summer 1495 A Drake, who..bore thy name in thunder round the world. 1763J. Brown Poetry & Music vi. 125 Holding a Branch of Myrtle in their Hand, which was sent round the Table. 1820Keats Lamia i. 43 The God, dove-footed, glided silently Round bush and tree. 1865Kingsley Herew. vi, Then he rode back to the ship, and round and round her. 1880Haughton Phys. Geogr. ii. 17 Her day is now equal to her periodic revolution round the earth. 1898A. B. Gomme Tradit. Games II. 122 Round and round the village, As we have done before. 1951in Oxf. Dict. Nursery Rhymes 184 Round and round the garden like a teddy bear; One step, two step, Tickle you under there! 1977Washington Post 26 Dec. c8/2 Travolta himself..is going round and round the country with a cordon of publicists.
Comb.1872C. King Sierra Nevada vii. 134 A weather-beaten round-the-worlder. 1889Advance (Chicago) Jan. 24 As travelers come home from a round-the-world tour. 1932A. Christie Peril at End House xi. 131 It was he who financed..the expenses of the round-the-world flight. 1974Times 10 Jan. 12 The West German round-the-world racing yacht, Peter von Danzig, is putting into Bluff, on New Zealand's South Island.
Phr. round-the- (also † me) houses, (a) Rhyming slang, trousers (see also round n.1 25); (b) attrib. phr. applied to a motor race or circuit following the streets of a city.
1857‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 17 Round me houses,..trousers, pronounced trouses [ed. 2, 1859, trousies]. 1858A. Mayhew Paved with Gold ii. x. 169 Philip intimating that, as soon as he had put on his trousers, he would blacken Bill's eyes, roared out, ‘Wait till I've togged my ‘round-the-houses’, and then I'll cook your ‘mince-pies’ for you’. 1898J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 220 An' as fer 'is rahnd-the-'ouses, they 'ad a crease right dahn 'em. 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xiii. 164 No man that wore 'ome-made round-th'-'ouses ever done wonders in this world. 1935Eyston & Lyndon Motor Racing iv. 38 The introduction of events run over short circuits planned within the confines of a town. These have become known as ‘round-the-houses’ races, the first of which was the Grand Prix of Monaco, inaugurated in 1929. 1957S. Moss In Track of Speed i. 14 The Manx Cup race in the Isle of Man, which was a sort of ‘round-the-houses’ contest in the environs of Douglas. 1970N.Z. News 21 Jan. 16/1 Champion of the American circuit, British-born Ron Grant revelled in conditions he had not experienced before in the Wanganui annual round the houses motorcycle race. 1974P. Wright Lang. British Industry x. 87 Some of it [sc . rhyming slang] apparently doesn't even rhyme properly; e.g. round the houses (trousers).
b. So as to include, traverse, visit, etc., in turn or successively; also, all about (a certain area).
1605Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 12 Anon wee'l drinke a Measure The Table round. 1689Burnet Tracts I. 77 All those offices go round the several Communities, who have the right of nomination in their turn. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 526 Round the Streets the reeling Actors ran. 1713Swift Cadenus & Vanessa 366 A Party next of glitt'ring Dames, From round the Purlieus of St. James. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 338 Three coaches..were sent every afternoon round the city to bring ladies to the festivities. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Round the Fleet, a diabolical punishment, by which a man, lashed to a frame on a long⁓boat, was towed alongside of every ship in a fleet, to receive a certain number of lashes. 1895Bookman Oct. 16/2 Several gentlemen..who make a very good living by hawking these nightingales round the cafés.
c. Throughout, all through; from beginning to end of (a period of time). round the clock, the clock round: see clock n.1 4. Also Comb., as round-the-year.
a1715Burnet Own Time (1734) I. 472 The King..was often weary of time and did not know how to get round the day. 1725Pope Odyss. vii. 151 Verdant olives flourish round the year. 1839–52Bailey Festus 317 Oh, thou wouldst promise me the clock round. 1959News Chron. 28 Nov. 3/1 Round-the-year sea bathing.
2. a. Around; about; on the circuit or outer bounds of; so as to surround or envelop.
1662Evelyn Chalcography 32 Put it round the brims of your plate. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. ii. 3 On the Shoar, round this Port, there are several fair Palaces. 1725Pope Odyss. v. 475 The chief..binds the sacred cincture round his breast. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. viii, Our family dined in the field, and we sate..round a temperate repast. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. x, Round one of those Book-packages..come..various waste printed-sheets. 1861Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 45 Round the apartment,..on every projecting ledge.., was displayed..the silver and pewter plate. 1887Bowen æneid i. 649 The veil Woven with a border round it of yellow acanthus.
b. Having (some person or thing) as the central figure or subject.
1898Echo 1 July 1/6 An American author..has written a novel round the author of the famous Persian ‘Rubáiyát’.
c. colloq. Of time: About; approximately. Cf. around prep. 4 b.
1928F. N. Hart Bellamy Trial iii. 92 It must have been round quarter to nine. 1942Partridge Usage & Abusage 277/1 Round for on or about is a characteristic of Cockney speech: e.g. ‘Meet me round seven o'clock’.
3. In all (or various) directions from; on all sides of.
1729J. Rogers 12 Serm. (1730) 347 When we come to look round us from the Ascent we have made. 1775R. King Life & Corr. (1894) I. 18 The Sheep & Cattle belonged to Men in Chelsea and round the same. 1816J. Wilson City of Plague i. i. 53 When round me silent Nature speaks of death. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 339 In the language of the gentry many miles round the Wrekin, to go to Shrewsbury was to go to town. 1885Harper's Mag. Feb. 445/2 She looked round her, and backed against some one coming up the street.
4. So as to revolve about (a centre or axis).
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Venus, Her Motion round her own Axis [is performed] in 23 Hours. 1771Encycl. Brit. I. 442 Jupiter turns round his axis in 9 hours 56 minutes. 1866Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 361/2 The pressure..will..cause the ship to revolve round the centre of gravity.
5. a. So as to make a turn or partial circuit about, or reach the other side of. Also in comb. round-the-corner.
1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 1 This Squadron was design'd round Cape Horn into the South Seas. 1787‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsem. (1809) 34 In turning sharp round a post. 1833Herschel Astron. i. 20 The effect of refraction, by which we are enabled to see..round the interposed segment. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. iii, We went round the corner. 1894Hall Caine Manxman 408 They brought up a carriage and drove him round the bay.
Comb.1820Edin. Rev. XXXIV. 305 Round-the-corner sort of personal satire. 1881[see lazy-tongs]. 1915A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear i. vii. 121 You get to your point, I admit, but you have such a deuced round-the-corner way of doing it.
b. to come or get round (a person): see come v. 47, get v. 47 a.
c. round the wicket: see bowl v.1 4 b.
1867G. H. Selkirk Guide to Cricket Ground iv. 61 The discretion allowed to the bowler to deliver the ball either over or round the wicket. 1894N. Gale Cricket Songs 26 If round the wicket, medium pace, Won't make the batsman budge,..Sling him a grub. 1956N. Cardus Close of Play 14 Macaulay bowled off-spin from round the wicket. 1966B. Johnston Armchair Cricket 109 Round the wicket, a method of delivery where the bowler has his back to the stumps at the bowling end as he delivers the ball, i.e. a right-arm bowler bowls on the right-hand side of the stumps, a left-arm bowler on the left-side. 1974Sunday Tel. 9 June 34/6 Titmus, fancying his chances, went round the wicket and induced the predictable catch to short leg.
d. Phr. round the bend: see bend n.4 10 c.
▪ V. round, v.1|raʊnd|
Forms: 4 rown-, 5 rownd(e, 6 rounde, rond(e; 4– round.
[f. round a., in early use perh. after OF. rondir. Cf. MDu. and Du. ronden, G. (late MHG.) runden, ründen, Da. runde, Sw. runda.]
I. trans.
1. a. To make round; to invest with a circular or spherical form. Also refl., to contract into a circle or ball.
c1375Cursor M. 7531 (Fairf.), He toke v. stanes rowned wiþ gynne. c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode ii. cxlvii. (1869) 133, I am þe..irchownes douhter, rownded to gideres wiche roundeth him for vertu with hise broches. 1608Topsell Serpents (1653) 697 This Serpent..climbeth up into trees where it roundeth it self round into a circle. 1670Pettus Fodinæ Reg. 41 The Moniers, who are some to sheer the Monie,..some to round it, and some to stamp or coin it. 1806J. Grahame Birds of Scot. i. 5 Even now he sits,..Half-hid, and warps the skep with willow rind, Or rounds the lid, still adding coil to coil. 1847Tennyson Princess ii. 350 On the lecture slate The circle rounded under female hands With flawless demonstration. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) II. x. 211 What rounded the sun and planets?
b. To draw together, or expand, into a rounded form. Also refl.
1867A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. i. iii. §3. 161 By more or less rounding the lips while the lingual position is held. 1890Clark Russell Ocean Trag. II. xx. 156 Amazement..rounded her eyes. 1894F. M. Elliot Roman Gossip viii. 225 Her eyes rounded themselves in her head.
c. To labialize (a vowel).
1867A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. i. iii. §3. 162 Hence we have this relation..that (u) is almost (ə) labialized or rounded. 1890Sweet Primer Phonetics (1902) 17 Back and mixed vowels..are rounded by lateral compression of the corners of the mouth and, apparently, of the cheeks.
2.
†a. To deface (coin) by cutting or paring. Obs.
c1400Brut clxiii, Kyng Edward..chaungede his mony, þat þo was foule cotte & rounded. 1602W. Fulbecke 1st Pt. Parallel 89 Such as clip, wash, round, or file mony, are only to forfeit their lands during their life. a1625Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 222 To clip, wash, round, or file, any mony of this Realme.
†b. To cut (the hair) short round the head; to trim, crop (the head, a person) in this way. Obs.
Common in 16th cent.; in later use only as an echo of Lev. xix. 27.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) VII. 183 Barbosus..was put from Yrlonde in that he did rownde the maydes after the consuetude of men. 1508Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 399, I sall degraid the,..Ger round the hede, transforme the till a fule. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. II. 8 To shave their beards, to round their heare, and to frame themselves..after the Norman manner. 1611Bible Lev. xix. 27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads. 1637Gillespie Eng. Pop. Cerem. iii. iii. 38 The law..simply forbiddeth to round the head. 1781S. Peters Hist. Connecticut 69 The Levitical law forbids cutting the hair, or rounding the head.
fig.a1548Hall Chron., Rich. III, 36 He was rounded shorter by the whole head without attaynder or judgement.
absol.1546Langley tr. Pol. Verg. de Invent. iii. xii. 80 b, Barbours to shaue and rounde were instituted by the Abantes.
†c. To cut or pare (the nails). Obs.—0
1570Levins Manip. 220/46 To Rond the nayls, putare.
d. To crop (the ears of dogs).
1781P. Beckford Th. Hunting (1802) 70 note, It may be better..to round them [sc. a dog's ears] at their quarters, when about six months old... Dogs must not be rounded at the time they have the distemper upon them. 1845Youatt Dog ix. (1858) 258 Some sportsmen are accustomed to round the ears, that is to cut off the diseased part. 1856Stonehenge Brit. Rur. Sports 120/2 The Young Hounds will require to be Rounded,..an operation for the removal of a portion of their ears, so as to prevent their being torn by the briars and thorns.
3. a. To make convex or curving in outline; to raise to a relief; to form into a cylinder.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. ii. 29 Hammer down the corners of..this shank,..and round it as near as you can with the hammer. 1702Addison Dial. Medals Wks. 1766 III. 165 The figures on several of our modern Medals are raised and rounded to a very great perfection. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. 144 Getting one [block of wood] as big as I had Strength to stir, I rounded it. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 43/1 When the glue is quite dry the back is rounded by beating with a hammer.
refl.1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. ii, The sail..swelled and rounded itself like a white bosom that had burst its bodice.
b. To develop or fill out to a rounded form.
a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 23 Slender arms before my face Are rounded with a statue's grace. 1847W. C. L. Martin The Ox 65/2 These cows..become full-fleshed and rounded. 1884A. J. Wilson Vashti i, Sixteen years had ripened and rounded the girlish form.
4. a. To finish off, bring to completeness or to a perfect form.
1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 158 We are such stuffe As dreames are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleepe. 1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 73 These hidden working laws that round the world. 1778Ann. Reg. 35 They..took such measures..as strongly indicated a design of..entirely rounding his possession of Silesia. 1848L. Hunt Jar of Honey x. 127 We shall round our subject by finishing the circle where we began it. 1895Mrs. Oliphant Makers of Mod. Rome i. vi. 97 The history of the first dedicated household..is thus rounded into a perfect record.
b. To frame or turn (a sentence, etc.) neatly or gracefully.
a1732Swift Misc. (J.), A quaint, terse, florid style, rounded into periods and cadencies, without propriety or meaning. 1791Boswell Johnson (Oxf. ed.) I. 151 His periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. 1842J. H. Newman Par. Serm. V. ii. 23 The introduction..of serious and solemn words..to round, or to give dignity to, a sentence. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. p. xii, In framing an English sentence or in rounding a paragraph.
c. To finish or end (a sentence, etc.) with something.
1780Mirror No. 97 He rounded this pathetic period with one of his best oaths. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, Kenwigs was going to say ‘house’, but he rounded the sentence with ‘apartments’. 1866N. & Q. 3rd Ser. IX. 486/1 Rounding his challenge with a sweeping attack upon Archbishop Laud. 1883F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius xiii, Having rounded it [the conversation] neatly with a couple of anecdotes,..he rose to go.
d. To approximate (a number) by expressing it in fewer significant figures (the rightmost digit(s) being replaced by 0 and the last unaltered digit being increased by 1 when the digit that followed is 5 (or 6) or more); to express (a number) in a less exact but more convenient form. Also with down, off, up (see senses 5 h, 6 e, 8 d below).
1934in Webster. 1935Shuster & Bedford Field Work in Math. iv. 14 Round the following numbers to three significant figures. Ibid. 15 Multiply 2·87 ft. (a) by 3·14, (b) by 3·142... Round in each case to three figures. 1956G. A. Montgomerie Digital Calculating Machines vii. 129 The usual rule is to ignore a digit less than five and to add one in the next place for five or more. 3·54 would be rounded to 3·5, 3·55 to 3·6, 3·56 to 3·6. 1962B.S.I. News Jan. 25/1 The results are either exact or have been rounded by the accepted convention to the number of significant figures given. 1966Rep. Comm. Inquiry Univ. Oxf. II. p. xxxii, In the tables each figure is rounded separately. 1971Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXV. 72 The loadings have been rounded to two figures.
5. round up:
a. To collect or gather up in a round mass or ball. Also refl.
1615T. Adams Black Devil 71 Innumerable plagues of Hell are rounded up together in one. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xviii. 429 He rounded himself up in his own prickles. 1650W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §43 The milkie-circle throngeth together a world of little small stars crouded, (rounded) up close into one heap.
†b. To rebuke or reprove (a person). Obs.—1
1678Bunyan Pilgr. i. (1900) 99 Then Christian roundly answered, saying, Demas [etc.]. marg. Christian roundeth up Demas.
c. To make up, complete (a number).
1806Cumberland Mem. I. 262 [Johnson added] ‘I want one of the dozen, and I must request Mrs. Cumberland to round up my number’.
d. Naut. (See quot. 1886.)
1846[see sense 7 a]. 1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 604 Round up, to shorten up a tackle; to pull up a slack rope through a block. 1947A. Ransome Great Northern? viii. 111 The Sea Bear slipped on in silence towards the big white motor yacht... She rounded up perhaps forty yards away.
e. To collect (cattle, etc.) by riding round the scattered herd and driving it together. orig. U.S. and Austr. Cf. 7 c. Also absol.
1847C. Sturt Narr. Exped. C. Australia (1849) I. 228 We rounded up the cattle till the moon should rise. 1869Overland Monthly III. 126 At night they ‘round up’ or ‘corral’. 1881A. C. Grant Bush-Life Queensland II. xxxiv. 198 As the eager stock-horse rounded up the panting mob. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 175 Before we turned in the horses were all rounded up. 1907C. E. Mulford Bar-20 15 They shore outer be here now. They rounded up last week. 1925E. F. Norton Fight for Everest 1924 26 Kingston and I amused ourselves by trying to round up some kiang [sc. wild donkeys]. 1949Sky Line Trail Oct. 18/1, I met some cowboys rounding up strayed horses.
transf.1885Weekly New Mexican Rev. 15 Jan. 2/5 Mr. Twitchell went down to ‘round up’ the gang and was so far successful as to spot the leader. 1889Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 27 May 4/5 All the suspects will be rounded up for the coroner's inquest. 1903Times 21 Sept. 4/5 The endless stretches of country..to be ‘rounded up’ by the cowboy at the end of the season. 1910Chambers's Jrnl. June 384/1, I have seen groups of these unfortunates ‘rounded up’ and marched off to the nearest police⁓station. 1931Daily Express 15 Oct. 6/3 The star-traders of the talkies have been out rounding up fresh material from which to carve the box-office idols of the future. 1944M. Laski Love on Supertax xii. 118 They delay.. arrests in the futile hope of ‘rounding up the whole gang’. 1975P. G. Winslow Death of Angel vi. 136, I heard about your difficulty and immediately rounded up Cecil.
f. Similarly without up.
1865Tucker Austral. Story 108 In the act of rounding some cattle for the purpose of yarding them. 1885Mrs. C. Praed Head Station 54 A stockman and a brace of black boys rounded the mob.
g. To increase (a number) when rounding it (cf. sense 4 d above) by adding 1 to its rightmost remaining digit, or by expressing it as the next higher round number.
1956G. A. Montgomerie Digital Calculating Machines vii. 129 In a long calculation, all these increases may accumulate, and it is better to round some of them up and some of them down. 1963Rep. Comm. Inquiry Decimal Currency iv. 30, in Parl. Papers 1962–3 (Cmnd. 2145) XI. 195 The custom with some of these goods is to round up, sometimes down, to the nearest halfpenny. 1969Guardian 30 July 16/1 The Shell-Mex and BP group..will not be advising the 17,000 stations it supplies whether to ‘round-up’ or ‘round-down’ petrol prices when the halfpenny ceases to be legal tender. 1975Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxi. 310 Some Authorities with schools of under 100 pupils round up the number on roll to the nearest 50 and calculate their per capita allowance on that basis. 1976[see rounding vbl. n. 1 c].
6. round off:
a. To make round, convex, or curved by trimming off edges or angles; to cut off (points, etc.) so as to make round.
1680Moxon Mech. Exerc. xii. 207 With the Draw-knife round off the Edges, to make it fit for the Lathe. 1683― Printing xi. ⁋22 The two upper corners of these Rails are rounded off that they may not mark the Paper. 1723Chambers tr. Le Clerc's Archit. I. 8 Vitruvius orders the Plinth of the Tuscan Column to be rounded off. 1725Lond. Gaz. No. 6356/3 A Slit in her Right Ear, if not rounded off since lost. 1814Scott Diary 16th Aug. in Lockhart, The lower [stone]..is shorter, and rounded off, instead of being square at the corners. 1846F. Brittan tr. Malgaigne's Oper. Surg. 217 An oval wound with the anterior angle rounded off. 1875Carpentry & Join. 62 Do not round off the upper edge of these.
transf.1807J. Opie Lect. Art iii. (1848) 304 Classing his colours,..gently rounding off his light.
b. To finish off, complete (an estate, etc.) by addition of adjacent lands.
1820Scott in Lockhart (1837) IV. xi. 376 It is {pstlg}200 too dear, but..it rounds the property off very handsomely. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. 28 An unscrupulous grantee would sometimes round off his estates by seizing small parcels of land. 1890Spectator 8 Mar., Those efforts at ‘rounding off’ dominion which so constantly result in disaster.
c. To finish or complete appropriately; to end neatly or elegantly.
1748Richardson Clarissa V. 135, I gave him..a frown..as much as to say, Swear to it, Captain. But the varlet did not round it off as I would have had him. 1818Scott Rob Roy i, He had picked up..a convenient expression, with which he rounded off every letter to his correspondent. 1874Deutsch Rem. 62 Prefacing, and rounding it off by an epilogue. 1887Creighton Hist. Ess. xii. (1902) 334 Mr. Symonds has wished to round off his book too completely.
d. To cause to pass pleasantly.
1824Byron Juan xv. xx, A conversational facility, Which may round off an hour upon a time.
e. = sense 4 d above. Also absol.
1935Shuster & Bedford Field Work in Math. iv. 14 The product given above, 20·671728 ft., should be ‘rounded off’ to 20.7 ft. 1945J. P. Eckert et al. Description of ENIAC (PB 86242) (Moore School of Electr. Engin., Univ. Pennsylvania) b–5 The products ci are rounded-off to the same number of places. 1977K. M. E. Murray Caught in Web of Words xi. 211 James had rounded off sums downwards rather than upwards—writing {pstlg}900 for an actual {pstlg}975 for example. 1978Green & Lewis Sci. with Pocket Calculators ii. 21 Many calculators..round off automatically when displaying results.
7. round in:
a. Naut. To haul in. (See quots. 1627 and 1846.)
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 42 Let rise the maine tacke and fore tacke, and hale aft the fore sheat to the cats head, and the maine sheat to the cubbridge head, this is Rounding in, or rounding aft the saile. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v., Round-in the weather-braces! 1825H. B. Gascoigne Path to Naval Fame 53 While some to ease the Tacks and Sheets are found, The Weather Braces in again they Round. 1841R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 49 Sometimes, if the weather brace cannot be well rounded in,..the sail may be clewed up to leeward a little, first. Ibid., Ease off the lee brace and round the yard in. 1846A. Young Naut. Dict., Round in, to haul in on a rope; especially on a weather brace. To round in a Tackle, means to haul in the slack of it in a horizontal direction; the term round up is applied in a similar manner when the tackle is in a vertical or sloping direction.
b. To round off (= 6 c).
1889Stevenson Edinburgh 142 A martial swan-song,..fitly rounding in the labours of the day.
c. To round up (= 5 e).
1900Daily News 15 May 3/3 Perhaps it would be difficult to find men better fitted to ‘round in’ Republican stragglers. 1907Month July 65 The cattle must be rounded in before breakfast.
8. a. round out, to finish or complete; to fill out, make plump. Also fig. and refl.
1856Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1870) II. 18 Her dream is half accomplished now, and..the remainder may soon be rounded out. 1867Oliphant Madonna Mary II. 223 Your native air will soon round out your dear cheeks. 1926Publishers' Weekly 29 May 1789/2 Presently we came away. The inquiry was rounding itself out. 1937A. L. Rowse Sir Richard Grenville 10 New discoveries..helping to round out and present at length a fairly full portrait of the man. 1947J. C. Rich Materials & Methods of Sculpture Pl. 35/4 (caption) Rounding out the forms from the front of the sheet. 1966Listener 24 Nov. 763/1 Now, with three full-length plays behind him..it is possible to round out a little that first impression. 1972Daily Tel. 30 Nov. 21 Lloyds Bank's new merchant bank, set up yesterday to round out the bank's services, has no name. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. i. 1/4 The third act very satisfactorily rounds out what has long been a frustrating, partially finished production.
b. round down, = overhaul v. 1. Naut.
1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 604/2 Round down, to overhaul, to slack by hand.
c. round over, to turn over so as to close at the end.
1895Westm. Gaz. 22 Jan. 8/2 A new automatic machine, for rounding over, turning in, or closing cartridges.
d. round down, to decrease (a number) when rounding it (cf. sense 4 d above) by making no alteration to its remaining digits, or by expressing it as the next lower round number.
1956, etc. [see sense 5 h above]. 1970Guardian 19 Feb. 13/6 The new conversion table would enable prices sometimes to be rounded down, although some may be rounded up. 1971Daily Tel. 9 Nov. 14 It is Post Office practice for telephone bill totals ending in ½p to be rounded down to the nearest whole penny. 1976[see rounding vbl. n. 1 c].
II.
9. a. To make the complete circuit of, to pass or travel round (the world, a place, etc.).
1592Greene Conny Catch. Pref. p. i, I haue seene the world, and rounded it, though not with trauell, yet with experience. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 84 A hundred Knights Circling the sad pile... Thrice it they round, Their weapons clash. 1667Milton P.L. x. 684 While the low Sun To recompence his distance, in thir sight Had rounded still th' Horizon. 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 232, I saw the Man round and round him, as a Dog does before he lies down. 1799Southey Eng. Ecl. Poet. Wks. III. 169 With Cook he rounded the great globe. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lxiii, The circuits of thine orbit round A higher height, a deeper deep.
fig.1726–46Thomson Winter 19 To thee..The Muse..renews her song. Since has she rounded the revolving year.
b. To walk round, take a turn round, make the rounds of (a place, etc.). ? Obs.
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 70 Taking the care vpon him to round the house three or foure times aday. 1648Gage West Ind. 58 With two servants he would round the City. 1668Dryden Even. Love i. ii, Prythee, let's round the street a little; till Maskall watches for their women. a1734North Examen iii. vii. §93 (1740) 577 Before I settled in my Quarters, I rounded the Crowd, to observe, as well as I could, what was doing. 1736Carte Ormonde I. 273 The vigilant governor..had caused all the watches to be twice or thrice rounded that night.
10. a. To pass round so as to get to the opposite side of (a place).
1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 60 Keeping along Shore, and rounding every Bay. 1803Nelson 23 May in Nicolas Disp. (1845) V. 73 She rounded Ushant yesterday afternoon. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey I. 201 The road..penetrating from time to time into the mountain side to round a gorge. 1874Green Short Hist. vii. §6. 407 The daring adventurer..rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
b. slang or dial. To ‘get round’ a person; to obtain information about or from (one) by artifice, etc.
1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v., I'll round her, and get the secret out before I've done with her.
11. a. To surround or encircle; to encompass with something.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. ii. 161 The hollow Crowne That rounds the mortall Temples of a King. 1599T. M. Silkwormes 60 Rounding themselues ten thousand times and more Yet spinning stil behind and eke before. 1629Maxwell tr. Herodian (1635) 253 Protracting the time, till his whole army had rounded them. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 296 They rounding their Cook Rooms with small Furnaces. 1765J. Byron Voy. in Hawkesworth (1773) I. 77 We cut it [sc. a cable] into junk and bent a new one, which we rounded with old rigging. 1844Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile 977 This is the zodiac of the earth, Which rounds us with a visionary dread. 1854― Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus iv, How motionless Ye round me with your living statuary.
b. In pa. pple. rounded.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lix. 26 Cuddy Rig the Drumfress fuill May him resave agane this Ȝuill, All roundit in-to ȝal⁓low and reid. 1594Greene & Lodge Looking Gl. G.'s Wks. (Rtldg.) 117/1 Great Nineveh, Rounded with Lycus' silver-flowing streams. 1648Gage West Ind. 57 A white mantle of lawn or cambrick rounded with a broad lace. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 32 The town is large,..well rounded both with walls, and gardens and Arable land. 1871G. Macdonald Wks. Fancy & Imag. i. 285 Soon was she..rounded with dead glitter.
c. To hem or shut in.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 196 To weaken and discredit our exposure, How ranke soeuer rounded in with danger. 1911W. James Some Probl. Philos. vi. 99 Rationalistic philosophy has always aspired to a rounded-in view of the whole of things, a closed system of kinds.
12. To cause to turn round, or move in a circle; to bring round. Also with off.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., Hence, to round a Horse upon a Trot, Gallop, &c. is to make him carry his Shoulders and Haunches roundly or compactly upon a larger or smaller Circle, without traversing or bearing to a Side. 1833Tennyson Mariana in South 79 The day..slowly rounded to the east The one black shadow from the wall. 1852Lever M. Tiernay xxxi, ‘She's a stout boat to stand this,’ said Tom, as he rounded her off, at a coming wave. 1890Clark Russell Ocean Trag. III. xxxiv. 241 Rapidly averting his glance when she chanced to round her face towards him on a sudden.
III. intr.
13. a. To walk or go about; spec. of a guard, to go the rounds. Now rare.
c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 938 To ronde or go about, arondir. 1598Barret Theor. Wars iv. iv. 115 The Gouernour..rounding extraordinarily is to giue the Word first vnto the Round. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. i. §3 The wise mans eyes keepe watch in his head whereas the foole roundeth about in darknesse. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 685 Oft in bands While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk.., thir songs Divide the night. 1941Penguin New Writing II. 14 Early as it is women and old men are hunting for scraps of coal on the side of the incline. They have to be away before the police start to round.
b. To take a circular or winding course; to make a turn, curve, or sweep; to turn round, in various senses. Also const. in.
1674Boston Rec. (1881) VII. 89 A high way..to runn..betweene his other lands and soe roundinge about the side of the hill. 1679Moxon Mech. Exerc. ix. 153 These four Winding steps aforesaid, rounding one quarter about the Newel, turns your Face in your Ascent. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. II. 36/1 Those flutings..must round clear round the Column. 1757W. Wilkie Epigoniad i. 2 Time's oblivious gulf,..In whose wide vortex worlds themselves are tost, And rounding swift successively are lost. 1834Marryat P. Simple (1863) 392 We tore clear from her, and rounding to the wind shot a-head. 1859Tennyson Pelleas & Ettarre 138 The men who met him rounded on their heels And wonder'd after him. 1872Jenkinson Guide Lakes (1879) 333 Rounding to the left, and attaining the top of Whiteside, the tourist [etc.]. 1924Galsworthy White Monkey i. xiii. 109 He rounded-in from the Embankment towards home.
fig.1750Fielding Amelia viii. ii, Booth had a little mercy on the poor bailiff when he found him rounding in this manner, and told him he had made the matter very clear.
c. To curve off.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. i. 5 The Heads of Pins that round off towards the edges. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 509 The back of it [sc. the discharging pallet] a little rounding off from the centre.
d. Naut. round to, to come to the wind and heave to.
1830Marryat King's Own xiii, The frigate..now prepared to round-to. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xviii, She rounded-to and let go her anchor. 1890Clark Russell Marriage at Sea vi, As she rounded to, a whole green sea struck her full abeam.
e. slang. To become an informer; to peach. Usu. const. on (a person).
1859Slang Dict. 82 Round, to tell tales, to ‘split’..; ‘to Round on a man’, to swear to him as being the person, etc. 1869Times 19 Jan. 11/6 He said ‘I suppose Calvin has ‘rounded’ on me, and I will ‘round’ on him’. 1877Besant & Rice Harp & Cr. xxiv, You know I would not be such a bad lot as to round on your cousin, whatever he's done.
f. To turn round on; to assail, assault, esp. with words; to abuse, berate.
1882Sydney Slang Dict. 7/2 Round (on a man),..to abuse. 1909Blackw. Mag. Sept. 413/1 On one occasion..she had rounded on him and scolded him for a full half-hour. 1932E. Bowen To North xx. 211 Cecilia did not round on Julian. 1966Listener 24 Nov. 764/2 It may be possible to find a parallel in the work of other writers whose first impulse, as young men, was to round on society. 1973Times 16 Nov. 4 Professor Peters also rounds on the Inner London Education Authority for exceeding its brief.
14. a. To become round, circular, or spherical; to grow or develop to a full round form. Also with out.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. ii. i. 16 The Queene..rounds apace: we shall Present our seruices to a fine new Prince One of these dayes. 1807Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 554 Here clothed and fed, no sooner he began To round and redden, than away he ran. 1877Tennyson Harold i. i, Albeit no rolling stone,..Thou hast rounded since we met. 1893Chamb. Jrnl. 19 Aug. 514/1 The little green apples grew and rounded and yellowed. 1912Red Mag. Apr. 510/2, I guess she didn't know how she had rounded out in the mountain air.
fig.1850Tennyson In Mem. xlv, So rounds he to a separate mind From whence clear memory may begin.
b. To have or assume a curved or rounded form; to curve or inflect. Also with away or up.
1670Narborough Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 42 Over the Cliff the Hill rounds up to the top. Ibid. 62 The South part rounds away in a Foreland: The South⁓shore rounds away South-east from this Foreland. 1711W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 45 If the Beams are required to round equal and alike. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 411/1 In such a manner that the sheer rounds up, and the highest part is in the midships. 1832L. Hunt Poems 196 That recess, Rounding from the main stream. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 129 The ledges..arch or round-up.
fig.1859Whittier My Psalm 64 All the angles of its strife Slow rounding into calm.
c. Of a whale: To prepare or make ready to dive by arching the back.
1889in Cent. Dict. s.v.
d. to round up, to collect in a body.
1879Missouri Republican 22 Oct. 3/7 Are you going to ‘round up’ at Maj. B.'s tonight? 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 239 They are off at full speed..until..they can halt and ‘round’ up in the beloved camp. Ibid. 241 The..cattle..being permitted to round up on the camp. 1896Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign vii, I sounded my whistle and started along on the spoor, the scouts rounding up to me and taking up the trail.
Add:[III.] 15. round out Aeronaut. = flare v. 4 d.
1949Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIII. 957/1 The cabin floor angle in the steeper types, such as Dakotas and Lancastrians, is changed as slowly as possible by slow rounding out and by landing with the tail just off the ground. 1956W. A. Heflin U.S. Air Force Dict. 448/1 To round out, to flare out.
▪ VI. round, v.2 Now arch.|raʊnd|
Forms: α. 1 runian, 2 runien, 3 runen, 3–4 rune, 4 run; 3 rouny, 3–7 roune (4 -en, rone, 5–6 rovne), 4–6, 8 Sc. roun. β. 5 rownen, -yn, 4–7 rown(e. γ. 5 ronde, 5–7, 9 round, 6–7 rounde; 6 rownd, Sc. rund.
[OE. rúnian (f. rún roun), = MDu. rūnen, ruynen, OS. rûnôn (MLG., LG. rûnen), OHG. rûnên, MSw. runa, to whisper. The normal modern form would have been rown; for the excrescent d cf. sound n. and bound ppl. a.1]
In senses 1–3 very common down to the 17th cent., freq. with the addition of in the (or one's) ear.
1. intr. To whisper, to speak in a whisper; to converse or talk privately; † also occas., to mutter or murmur.
αc1000ælfric Gram. xxxvi. (Z.) 217 Susurro, ic runiᵹe. c1000Ags. Ps. (Spelman) xl. 8 Toᵹeanes me ðohtan [Cambr. MS. runedon] ealle fynd mine. c1250Lutel suth Serm. 59 in O.E. Misc. 188 Þeos prude maidenes þat..runeþ togaderes and spekeþ of derne luue. c1290Beket 1188 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 140 He rounede in is wiues ere, and tolde hire al is þouȝt. c1320Sir Tristr. 169 Mekeliche he gan mele, Among his men to roun. 1390Gower Conf. I. 161 Whan thei rounen in hire Ere. c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 4583, I say yt out, me lyst nat rovne, Thus ye shuld hir name expovne. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 40 He turned towarde the peple, & sawe hem roune, iape, counsaile, and iangle, eche with other. a1548Hall Chron., Edw. V, 22 b, The duke rouned with the Maire and sayed, this is a marueileous obstinate silence. 1570Levins Manip. 220 To Roune, in aurem loqui.
β13..Coer de Lion 2142 The steward on knees him set adown, With the emperour for to rown. 13..E.E. Allit. P. C. 64 Goddes glam to hym glod,..With a roghlych rurd rowned in his ere. 1415Hoccleve Sir J. Oldcastle 93 Rowne in the preestes ere & the greuance Of thy soule meekly to him confesse. c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. iv. 2096 Eche to other ful preuely thus dede rowne. 1526Skelton Magnyf. 1664 Yf it lyke you that I myght rowne in your eyre.
γa1450Mankind 292 (Brandl), He wyll ronde in yowur ere. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 93 Preuy backbytynge..is whan one whyspereth or roundeth with an other & secretely speketh..euyll of theyr neyghbour. 1592Greene Conny Catch. iii. Wks. (Grosart) X. 170 Then hearken in thy eare, saide the Nip, and so rounding with him, cut the poore mans purse. 1620–6Quarles Feast for Wormes 517 My sacred Muse hath rounded in mine eare, And read the myst'ry of a twofold feare. 1822Scott Nigel iii, So they let me go, and rode out, a' sniggering, laughing, and rounding in ilk ither's lugs.
†b. transf. Of the wind: To whistle. Obs.—1
c1440Pallad. on Husb. vi. 156 But ther the place is cloos is hem tenclude, And holde out wynde, although he rowne, or crie.
2. trans. To whisper (something); to utter or communicate in a whisper.
αc1000in Salomon & Saturn (Kemble) 258 Þeah þe mon hwylces hlihᵹe..ne rehst þu hwæt hy rædon, oððe runion. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 6930 A man..Rouned yn seynt Ihons ere, Þat he hadde broght..þyrty pounde. 1390Gower Conf. II. 209 The mannes herte anon is there, And rouneth tales in hire Ere. 1721Ramsay Lucky Spence xiii, I..Roun'd in his lug, that there was a Poor country Kate [etc.].
βc1386Chaucer Wife's T. Prol. 241 (Ellesm.), What rowne ye with oure mayde? c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1273 Seint Ambrose..Anon right rowned to his compaignye, ‘Sires, it is tyme þat we hennes hye’. c1450Myrr. Our Lady 47, I rowned to the in the quyer halfe wordes, & therfore I am byden to satysfaccion. 1683E. Hooker in Pordage Mystic Div. Pref. Ep. 81 When thei rown in their maids ears so frequently and fiercely, What slow haste make yee?
γa1529Skelton Bouge of Court 513, I haue an errande to rounde in your ere. 1552in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. xvi. 292 Certeyne busie bodies..rounded into the eares of the preachers..their tender consideracion. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 217 They're here with me already; whisp'ring, rounding: Sicilia is a so-forth. c1680Row Suppl. Blair's Autobiog. (Wodrow Soc.) 547 The Prelates did round and whisper among themselves what was spoken or done. 1823Scott Quentin D. xxxvi, Bringing out honest De la Marck's plan.., instead of rounding it in my ear. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ix. x. (1865) III. 173 Ill Margraf rounded things into the Crown-Prince's ear, in an unmannerly way.
3. To address (a person) in a whisper; in later use esp. to take (one) privately to task.
α βc1400Love Bonavent. Mirr. (1908) 106 Sche wente..to hir sone Jesu..and rowned hym in the ere and seyde. 1535Coverdale Job xxxiii. 15 In dreames and visions of the night season..he rowneth them in the eares. 1597J. King On Jonas (1618) 145 They shall euen feel themselues to be touched, and so closely rouned in the eare, as they cannot deny their offence. 1649R. Hodge Plain Direct. 18 She went round about, and rowned him in his ear.
γ1530Palsgr. 694/2 Go rounde hym in the eare and bydde him come and suppe with me. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1149/1 George Gilpin..came to him and rounded him in his eare. 1606S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 85 Elias thought himself the only remainder of the Church of Israel..: But God otherwise rounded him in the eare. a1689A. Behn Novels II. 260 At first he thought to round him severely in the ear about it. 1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope I. 82 The king of the country sent for him and rounded him in the ear on his purpos'd treachery. 1815Hist. John Decastro I. 49 Old Crab did not let slip so favourable an opportunity to round his brother a little in the ear upon this subject. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! xviii, He rounded his friend Mr. Brimblecombe in the ear, and told him he had better play the man a little more.
b. With double object: To whisper (something) to (a person).
1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 74 His Pypers were ready too rounde him in the eare, what he should speake. 1604Middleton Black Bk. Wks. 1885 VIII. 29 This rammish penny-father I rounded in the left ear..the place and hour. 1688Vox Cleri Pro Rege 53 We have oft of late been rounded in the Ears, That the Priests Lips do keep Knowledge. 1823Lamb Elia ii. New Year's Coming of Age, He slily rounded the first lady in the ear, that an action might lie against the Crown. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. iv. 600 Then round us in the ears from morn to night,..That you are robbed, starved, beaten and what not.
†c. To whisper into (the ear). Obs. rare.
1624Quarles Job Militant vii. 13 Did Record ever round thine eare, That God forsooke the heart, that was sincere? 1646― Judgement & Mercy Wks. (Grosart) I. 93 But, hark, my soule, there's something rounds mine eare.
†4. intr. To speak, talk, discourse (of something). Obs.
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 107 His eȝen to sen, his earen to listen,..his muð to runien. 13..Sir Beues 4 Lordinges, herkneþ to me tale!.. Of a kniȝt ich wile ȝow roune. c1375Cursor M. 14922 (Fairf.), For-þi in rime wille we roun.
†b. trans. To say, speak, tell (something). Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 28110 Oft ic ha roned soth or lese Þat i wyst noiþer queþer it wese. c1386Chaucer Sir Thopas 124, I wol yow rowne How sir Thopas..Is comen agayn to towne.
†5. intr. To take counsel, deliberate, meditate.
c1205Lay. 5817 Þer innen heo speken, Þer inne heo runden ane lutle while. Ibid. 19340 Cnihtes gunnen runen, cnihtes gunnen ræden. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas v. vii. (1554) 127 Perseueraunce, who list muse and roun, Graunteth to them..The triumph.
†b. trans. To talk about (or over); to discuss.
c1205Lay. 9860 Al niht heo runden, Whæt heom weoren to ræde. Ibid. 24887 Þer men gunnen rune..wulc andswere he ȝiuen wolde. c13..Cursor M. 19713 (Gött.), Þair redis þarfor gun þai rune wid all þe kepers of þat tune. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 401 Rapely ye renne your resonys to rowne. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 629 Syne quietlie togidder tha did roun The fassoun how he wald gif ouir the toun. 1637Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 294 Oh how many black accounts have Christ and I rounded over together in the house of my pilgrimage!
†c. To take or give as counsel. Obs.
c1205Lay. 13189 Heo redden, heo runden [c 1275 rouneden],..Þat Ambrosie heo wolden habben. Ibid. 16997 He þe wolde runen selest ræden. |
