Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - round

I. [c red]PREPOSITION AND ADVERB USES Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. Note: 'Round' is an adverb and preposition that has the same meanings as ‘around’. 'Round' is often used with verbs of movement, such as ‘walk’ and ‘drive’, and also in phrasal verbs such as ‘get round’ and ‘hand round’. 'Round' is commoner in British English than American English, and it is slightly more informal. Please look at category 20 to see if the expression you are looking for is shown under another headword. 1. To be positioned round a place or object means to surround it or be on all sides of it. To move round a place means to go along its edge, back to the point where you started. They were sitting round the kitchen table... All round us was desert... PREP • Round is also an adverb. Visibility was good all round... The goldfish swam round and round in their tiny bowls. ADV: ADV after v 2. If you move round a corner or obstacle, you move to the other side of it. If you look round a corner or obstacle, you look to see what is on the other side. Suddenly a car came round a corner on the opposite side... One of his men tapped and looked round the door. PREP 3. You use round to say that something happens in or relates to different parts of a place, or is near a place. He happens to own half the land round here... I think he has earned the respect of leaders all round the world... PREP • Round is also an adverb. Shirley found someone to show them round... So you’re going to have a look round? ADV: ADV after v, n ADV 4. If a wheel or object spins round, it turns on its axis. Holes can be worn remarkably quickly by a wheel going round at 60mph... ADV: ADV after v 5. If you turn round, you turn so that you are facing or going in the opposite direction. She paused, but did not turn round... The wind veered round to the east... ADV: ADV after v 6. If you move things round, you move them so they are in different places. I’ve already moved things round a bit to make it easier for him. ADV: ADV after v 7. If you hand or pass something round, it is passed from person to person in a group. John handed round the plate of sandwiches. ADV: ADV after v • Round is also a preposition. They started handing the microphone out round the girls at the front... PREP 8. If you go round to someone’s house, you visit them. I think we should go round and tell Kevin to turn his music down... He came round with a bottle of champagne. ADV: ADV after v • Round is also a preposition in non-standard English. I went round my wife’s house. PREP 9. You use round in informal expressions such as sit round or hang round when you are saying that someone is spending time in a place and is not doing anything very important. (BRIT) As we sat round chatting, I began to think I’d made a mistake... ADV: ADV after v • Round is also a preposition. She would spend the day hanging round street corners... PREP 10. If something is built or based round a particular idea, that idea is the basis for it. That was for a design built round an existing American engine... PREP 11. If you get round a problem or difficulty, you find a way of dealing with it. Don’t just immediately give up but think about ways round a problem... PREP 12. If you win someone round, or if they come round, they change their mind about something and start agreeing with you. He did his best to talk me round, but I wouldn’t speak to him... ADV: ADV after v 13. You use round in expressions such as this time round or to come round when you are describing something that has happened before or things that happen regularly. In the past, the elections have been marked by hundreds of murders, but this time round the violence has been much more limited... ADV: n ADV, ADV after v 14. You can use round to give the measurement of the outside of something that is shaped like a circle or a cylinder. I’m about two inches larger round the waist. PREP • Round is also an adverb. It’s six feet high and five feet round. ADV 15. You use round in front of times or amounts to indicate that they are approximate. I go to bed round 11:00 at night. ADV: ADV amount c darkgreen]vagueness 16. In spoken English, round about means approximately. (mainly BRIT) Round about one and a half million people died. PREP-PHRASE c darkgreen]vagueness 17. You say all round to emphasize that something affects all parts of a situation or all members of a group. (mainly BRIT) It ought to make life much easier all round... PHRASE: cl PHR c darkgreen]emphasis 18. If you say that something is going round and round in your head, you mean that you can’t stop thinking about it. It all keeps going round and round in my head till I don’t know where I am. PHRASE: V inflects 19. If something happens all year round, it happens throughout the year. Many of these plants are evergreen, so you can enjoy them all year round... PHRASE: PHR after v 20. round the corner: see corner the other way round: see way II. [c red]NOUN USES (rounds) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. A round of events is a series of related events, especially one which comes after or before a similar series of events. This is the latest round of job cuts aimed at making the company more competitive... N-COUNT: with supp, oft N of n 2. In sport, a round is a series of games in a competition. The winners of these games go on to play in the next round, and so on, until only one player or team is left. ...in the third round of the Pilkington Cup... After round three, two Americans share the lead. = heat N-COUNT: usu adj N, N num 3. In a boxing or wrestling match, a round is one of the periods during which the boxers or wrestlers fight. He was declared the victor in the 11th round... N-COUNT: usu adj N, N num 4. A round of golf is one game, usually including 18 holes. ...two rounds of golf... N-COUNT: usu N of n, N of num 5. If you do your rounds or your round, you make a series of visits to different places or people, for example as part of your job. (mainly BRIT; in AM, usually use route) The consultants still did their morning rounds... N-COUNT: usu supp N 6. If you buy a round of drinks, you buy a drink for each member of the group of people that you are with. They sat on the clubhouse terrace, downing a round of drinks... N-COUNT: usu with supp 7. A round of ammunition is the bullet or bullets released when a gun is fired. ...firing 1650 rounds of ammunition during a period of ten minutes. N-COUNT: usu num N, N of n 8. If there is a round of applause, everyone claps their hands to welcome someone or to show that they have enjoyed something. Sue got a sympathetic round of applause. N-COUNT: N of n 9. In music, a round is a simple song sung by several people in which each person sings a different part of the song at the same time. N-COUNT 10. If a story, idea, or joke is going the rounds or doing the rounds, a lot of people have heard it and are telling it to other people. This story was going the rounds 20 years ago. PHRASE: V inflects 11. If you make the rounds or do the rounds, you visit a series of different places. After school, I had picked up Nick and Ted and made the rounds of the dry cleaner and the grocery store... PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR of n III. [c red]ADJECTIVE USES (rounder, roundest) 1. Something that is round is shaped like a circle or ball. She had small feet and hands and a flat, round face. ...the round church known as The New Temple. ADJ 2. A round number is a multiple of 10, 100, 1000, and so on. Round numbers are used instead of precise ones to give the general idea of a quantity or proportion. A million pounds seemed a suitably round number. ADJ: ADJ n IV. [c red]VERB USES (rounds, rounding, rounded) 1. If you round a place or obstacle, you move in a curve past the edge or corner of it. The house disappeared from sight as we rounded a corner... = go round VERB: V n 2. If you round an amount up or down, or if you round it off, you change it to the nearest whole number or nearest multiple of 10, 100, 1000 and so on. We needed to do decimals to round up and round down numbers... The fraction was then multiplied by 100 and rounded to the nearest half or whole number... I’ll round it off to about ?30. VERB: V n with adv, be V-ed to amount, V n adv to amount 3. see also rounded