Word: round Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /ˈɹaʊ̯nd/, /ɹʊnd/, /ɹuːnd/, /ˈɹæʊ̯nd/, /ˈɹaːnd/ 1. A circular or spherical object or part of an object. Example: in labyrinth of many a round self-rolled Example: 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. 2. A circular or repetitious route. Example: hospital rounds Example: The prison guards have started their nightly rounds. 3. A general outburst from a group of people at an event. Example: The candidate got a round of applause after every sentence or two. 4. A song that is sung by groups of people with each subset of people starting at a different time. Labels: countable 5. A serving of something; a portion of something to each person in a group. Example: They brought us a round of drinks about every thirty minutes. Example: There is a snaky gleam in her hard grey eye, as of anticipated rounds of buttered toast, relays of hot chops, worryings and quellings of young children, sharp snappings at poor Berry, and all the other delights of her Ogress's castle. 6. A single individual portion or dose of medicine. Example: Daniel underwent one round of chemotherapy in February but stopped after that single treatment, citing religious beliefs. 7. One slice of bread. Labels: UK Example: For breakfast I had two rounds of toast and a mug of tea. 8. One sandwich (two full slices of bread with filling). 9. A long-bristled, circular-headed paintbrush used in oil and acrylic painting. 10. 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. 11. 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. Example: 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 12. A stage, level, set of events in a game Example: qualifying rounds of the championship 13. A stage, level, set of events in a game 14. A stage, level, set of events in a game Example: 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. 15. A stage, level, set of events in a game 16. A rounded relief or cut at an edge, especially an outside edge, added for a finished appearance and to soften sharp edges. 17. A strip of material with a circular face that covers an edge, gap, or crevice for decorative, sanitary, or security purposes. Example: All furniture in the nursery had rounds on the edges and in the crevices. 18. The hindquarters of a bovine; a round of beef. 19. A rung, as of a ladder. Labels: dated Example: All the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise. Example: The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case with swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of wood, so that at every step there was a joint. 20. A crosspiece that joins and braces the legs of a chair. 21. A series of changes or events ending where it began; a series of like events recurring in continuance; a cycle; a periodical revolution. Example: the round of the seasons a round of pleasures Example: On life's long round by chance I found A dell impearled with dew, Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground, Lent to the earth heaven's native hue Of holy blue. 22. A course of action or conduct performed by a number of persons in turn, or one after another, as if seated in a circle. Example: Women to cards may be compar'd: we play ¶ A round or two; when us'd, we throw away. Example: […]the Feaſt was ſerv'd; the Bowl was crown'd; To the King's Pleaſure went the mirthful Round: […] 23. A series of duties or tasks which must be performed in turn, and then repeated. Example: The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask; […] 24. A circular dance. Example: Come, knit hands, and beat the ground, In a light fantastic round. 25. Rotation, as in office; succession. Example: A Cave[…], Where light and darkness in perpetual round Lodge and dislodge by turns. 26. A general discharge of firearms by a body of troops in which each soldier fires once. 27. An assembly; a group; a circle. Example: a round of politicians 28. A brewer's vessel in which the fermentation is concluded, the yeast escaping through the bunghole. 29. A vessel filled, as for drinking. Labels: archaic 30. A round-top.