round

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
round/raʊnd/

▶adjective

• 1 shaped like a circle or cylinder.

• 2 shaped like a sphere.

  ■ having a curved surface with no sharp projections.

• 3 (of a person's shoulders) bent forward.

• 4 (of a voice) rich and mellow.

• 5 (of a number) expressed in convenient units rather than exactly, for example to the nearest whole number.

  ■ used to show that a figure has been completely and exactly reached: the batsman made a round 100.

  ■ archaic (of a sum of money) considerable.

• 6 frank and truthful: she berated him in good round terms.

▶noun

• 1 a circular piece or section.

• 2 an act of visiting a number of people or places in turn, especially in a fixed order as part of one's duties: a newspaper round.

  ■ a regularly recurring sequence of activities.

• 3 each of a sequence of sessions in a process, especially in a sports contest.

  ■ a single division of a game or contest, especially in a boxing or wrestling match.

  ■ an act of playing all the holes in a golf course once.

• 4 a set of drinks bought for all the members of a group, typically as part of a sequence in which each member in turn buys such a set.

• 5 Music a song for three or more unaccompanied voices or parts, each singing the same theme but starting one after another.

• 6 Brit. a slice of bread.

  ■ the quantity of sandwiches made from two slices of bread.

• 7 the amount of ammunition needed to fire one shot.

  ■ Archery a fixed number of arrows shot from a fixed distance.

▶adverb chiefly Brit.

• 1 so as to rotate or cause rotation.

  ■ so as to cover the whole area surrounding a particular centre.

• 2 so as to rotate and face in the opposite direction.

  ■ used in describing the relative position of something: the sections are the wrong way round.

• 3 so as to surround.

  ■ so as to give support.

• 4 so as to reach a new place or position.

• 5 used to suggest idle and purposeless motion or activity.

▶preposition chiefly Brit.

• 1 on every side of (a focal point).

• 2 so as to encircle.

• 3 from or on the other side of.

• 4 so as to cover the whole of.

▶verb

• 1 pass and go round.

• 2 make (a figure) less exact but more convenient for calculations: we'll round the weight up to the nearest kilo.

• 3 become or cause to become round in shape.

• 4 Phonetics pronounce (a vowel) with the lips narrowed and protruded.

– phrases
go the round (or rounds) be passed on from person to person.
in the round

• 1 (of sculpture) standing free, rather than carved in relief.

• 2 (of theatre) with the audience placed on at least three sides of the stage.

• 3 with all aspects shown.

– phrasal verbs
round something off

• 1 make the edges of something smooth.

• 2 complete something in a satisfying or suitable way.

round on make a sudden attack on.
round someone/thing up drive or collect a number of people or animals together.

– derivatives
roundish adjective,
roundness noun.

– origin ME: from the OFr. stem round-, from a var. of L. rotundus ‘rotund’.

usage: In British English the adverbs and prepositions round and around are interchangeable in many contexts. There is, however, a general preference for round to be used for definite, specific movement (she turned round), while around tends to be used in contexts which are less definite (she wandered around for ages; a rumour circulating around the cocktail bars). In US English, however, the normal form in most contexts is around; round is only standard in certain fixed expressions, as in all year round and they went round and round in circles.