round
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹaʊnd/
ipa: /ɹuːnd/
ipa: /ˈɹaʊnd/
rhymes: -aʊnd
Forms: form: rounds
form: around
form: ron
Etymology: From Middle English round, rounde, from Old Northern French roünt, rund, Old French ront, runt, reont ( > French rond), from both Late Latin retundus and the original Latin rotundus. The noun developed partly from the adjective and partly from the corresponding French noun rond. Doublet of rotund.
Senses: examples: text: in labyrinth of many a round self-rolled
ref: 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
text: Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. [...] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 6:
text: All at once the sun was through, a round of dulled silver, racing slantwise through the clouds yet always staying in the same place.
ref: 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 50:
glosses: A circular or spherical object or part of an object.
examples: text: hospital rounds
text: The prison guards have started their nightly rounds.
text: Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 257:
glosses: A circular or repetitious route.
examples: text: The candidate got a round of applause after every sentence or two.
glosses: A general outburst from a group of people at an event.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A song that is sung by groups of people with each subset of people starting at a different time.
examples: text: They brought us a round of drinks about every thirty minutes.
text: There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's castle.
ref: 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Retribution”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 594:
text: I said I did impersonations would you like to see
 Turned around to buy her one more round
ref: 1978, “Last Summer”, in Blondes Have More Fun, performed by Rod Stewart:
glosses: A serving of something; a portion of something to each person in a group.
examples: text: Daniel underwent one round of chemotherapy in February but stopped after that single treatment, citing religious beliefs.
ref: 2009 May 26, Patrick Condon, "Boy with cancer, mom return home", Associated Press, printed in Austin American-Statesman, page A4
glosses: A single individual portion or dose of medicine.
examples: text: For breakfast I had two rounds of toast and a mug of tea.
glosses: One slice of bread.
glosses: One sandwich (two full slices of bread with filling).
topics: art
arts
glosses: A long-bristled, circular-headed paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting.
glosses: A firearm cartridge, bullet, or any individual ammunition projectile. Originally referring to the spherical projectile ball of a smoothbore firearm. Compare round shot and solid shot.
examples: text: And though Fightville, an MMA documentary from the directors of the fine Iraq War doc Gunner Palace, presents it more than fairly, the sight of a makeshift ring getting constructed on a Louisiana rodeo ground does little to shake the label. Nor do the shots of ringside assistants with spray bottles and rags, mopping up the blood between rounds
ref: 2002 April 19, Scott Tobias, “Fightville”, in The A.V. Club:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: One of the specified pre-determined segments of the total time of a sport event, such as a boxing or wrestling match, during which contestants compete before being signaled to stop.
examples: text: qualifying rounds of the championship
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A stage, level, set of events in a game
A stage in a competition.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A stage, level, set of events in a game
In some sports, e.g. golf or showjumping: one complete way around the course.
examples: text: When the player uses one shell to complete a round within 50 seconds, it vanishes forever. At the end of two successful rounds, for instance, the player has only two shells to pick from during docking.
ref: 1981, Tom Hirschfeld, How to Master the Video Games, page 88:
topics: video-games
glosses: A stage, level, set of events in a game
A stage or level of a game.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: A stage, level, set of events in a game
The play after each deal.
topics: CAD
computing
drafting
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A rounded relief or cut at an edge, especially an outside edge, added for a finished appearance and to soften sharp edges.
examples: text: All furniture in the nursery had rounds on the edges and in the crevices.
glosses: A strip of material with a circular face that covers an edge, gap, or crevice for decorative, sanitary, or security purposes.
qualifier: butchery
glosses: The hindquarters of a bovine; a round of beef.
examples: text: All the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise.
ref: 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
text: The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case with swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of wood, so that at every step there was a joint.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Pulpit”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 42:
glosses: A rung, as of a ladder.
glosses: A crosspiece that joins and braces the legs of a chair.
examples: text: the round of the seasons    a round of pleasures
text: On life's long round by chance I found
 A dell impearled with dew,
 Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground,
 Lent to the earth heaven's native hue
 Of holy blue.
ref: 1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Love in Exile. Song X.] ‘On Life’s Long Round’.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 177:
glosses: A series of changes or events ending where it began; a series of like events recurring in continuance; a cycle; a periodical revolution.
examples: text: Women to cards may be compar'd: we play
 A round or two; when us'd, we throw away.
ref: c. 1732, George Granville, Women:
text: […]the Feaſt was ſerv'd; the Bowl was crown'd;
 To the King's Pleaſure went the mirthful Round: […]
ref: 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 437:
glosses: A course of action or conduct performed by a number of persons in turn, or one after another, as if seated in a circle.
examples: text: The trivial round, the common task,
 Would furnish all we ought to ask; […]
ref: 1827, [John Keble], “Morning”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 4:
synonyms: routine
glosses: A series of duties or tasks which must be performed in turn, and then repeated.
examples: text: Come, knit hands, and beat the ground,
 In a light fantastic round.
ref: 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
english: Comus
translation: Comus
glosses: A circular dance.
examples: text: A Cave[…],
Where light and darkness in perpetual round
Lodge and dislodge by turns.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: Rotation, as in office; succession.
glosses: A general discharge of firearms by a body of troops in which each soldier fires once.
examples: text: a round of politicians
glosses: An assembly; a group; a circle.
glosses: A brewer's vessel in which the fermentation is concluded, the yeast escaping through the bunghole.
glosses: A vessel filled, as for drinking.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A round-top.
Synonyms: sense: song with each subset starting at a different time
word: canon
sense: hindquarters of a bovine
word: rump
Hyponyms: sense: song with each subset starting at a different time
word: catch
Derived terms: all round
American round
baton round
clear round
conscience round
down round
eco round
elimination round
eye of round
flat round
get rounds
half-round
in the round
lightning round
live round
milk round
newspaper round
paper round
pirate round
plastic baton round
quarter-round
round girl
round of 16
round of 32
round of applause
round of sixteen
sandwich round
theater-in-the-round
top round
tracer round
up round
York round