round

1. adjective

1)

a round window

Syn:

circular, ring-shaped, disk-shaped, hoop-shaped; spherical, spheroidal, globular, globe-shaped, orb-shaped; cylindrical; bulbous, rounded, rotund; technical annular, discoid

2)

round cheeks

Syn:

plump, chubby, fat, full

Ant:

thin

3)

his deep, round voice

Syn:

sonorous, full-bodied, full-toned, rich, deep, mellow, resonant, reverberant; grandiloquent, magniloquent, rotund, orotund; pear-shaped; rare canorous

Ant:

thin, reedy

4)

a round dozen

Syn:

complete, entire, whole, full

5) dated

she berated him in round terms

Syn:

candid, frank, direct, honest, truthful, straightforward, plain, blunt, forthright, bald, explicit, unequivocal, unmistakable, categorical

Ant:

evasive

2. noun

1)

mold the dough into rounds

Syn:

ball, sphere, globe, orb, circle, disk, ring, hoop; technical annulus

2) (rounds)

a policeman on his rounds

Syn:

circuit, beat, route, tour

3)

the first round of the tournament

Syn:

stage, level; heat, game, bout, contest; go-round

4)

an endless round of parties

Syn:

succession, sequence, series, cycle

5)

the gun fires thirty rounds per second

Syn:

bullet, cartridge, shell, shot

3. verb

the ship rounded the point

- round about

- round the bend

- round the clock

- round off

- round up

Syn:

go around, travel around, skirt, circumnavigate, orbit

••

round, annular, circular, globular, spherical

What do a bicycle wheel, a basketball, and a barrel of oil have in common? All are considered to be round, an adjective that may be applied to anything shaped like a circle, a sphere, or a cylinder. But of these three objects, only a basketball is spherical, which means having a round body whose surface is equally distant from the center at all points. Something that is globular is shaped like a ball or a globe but is not necessarily a perfect sphere (globular drops of oil leaking from the seam). A wheel is circular, as is a Frisbee; in fact, anything with a round, flat surface in the shape of a ring or a disk may be described as circular — whether or not it corresponds to a perfect circle. But only the rings of a tree can be described as annular, a word that usually implies having a series of concentric ringlike forms or structures.