ronde 
ing: see round 1 .} In printing, an angular form 
of script or writing-type, of which the follow- 
ing is an example : 
to one 
o| 31onb<z. 
rondeau (ron'do), . [< P. rondeau, < OF. ron- 
del, a roundel: see roundel."] 1. A poem in 
a fixed form, borrowed from the French, and 
consisting either of thirteen lines on two rimes 
with an unriming refrain, or of ten lines on two 
rimes with an unriming refrain. It may be writ- 
ten in octosyllabic or decasyllabic measure. The refrain 
is usually a repetition of the first three or four words, 
sometimes of the first word only. The order of rimes in 
the thirteen-llne rondeau, known technically as the " ron- 
deau of Voiture" (that is, Vincent Voiture, 1598-1648), is 
a, a, b, b, a; a, a, b (and refrain); a, a, b, b, a (and re- 
frain); that of the ten-line rondeau, known technically 
as the "rondeau of Villon" (that is, Francois Villon, 1431- 
1461 1\ is a, b, b, a; a, b (and refrain); a, b, b, a (and n-- 
train). These are the strict rules ; but, as in the case of 
the sonnet, both in France and England, they are not al- 
ways observed. There is also a form called the rondeau 
redaubtt. It consists of six quatrains, a, b, a, b, on two 
rimes. The first four lines form in succession the last 
lines of the second, third, fourth, and fifth quatrains. At 
the end of the final quatrain, the first words of the poem 
are added as an unriming and independent refrain. Some- 
times the final quatrain is styled the envoi or envoy. 
This sort of writing, called the rondeau, is what I never 
knew practised in our nation. Pope. 
2. In music. See rondo. 
rondel (ron'del), . [< OF. rondel: see roun- 
del."] A poem in a fixed form, borrowed from 
the French, and consisting of thirteen lines on 
two rimes. It may be written in octosyllabic or deca- 
syllabic measure. The first line is repeated at the close, 
and the first two lines are repeated as the seventh and 
eighth lines. Thus, the whole poem, like the rondeau 
(which see), falls into three divisions or stanzas two of 
four, and one of five arranged as follows: a, b, b, a; 
a, b, a, b; a, b, b, a, a. It is permissible to repeat the 
first couplet at the close, making the last division a, b, b, 
a, a, b, and fourteen lines in all. Rondels in English were 
written by Charles of Orleans, Chaucer, Occleve, Lydgate, 
and others. 
In its origin the rondel was a lyric of two verses, each 
having four or five lines, rhyming on two rhymes only. 
In its eight (or ten) lines, but five (or six) were distinct, 
the others being made by repeating the first couplet at the 
end of the second stanza, sometimes in an inverse order, 
and the first line at the end of its first stanza. The eight- 
lined rondel is thus to all intents and purposes a triolet. 
. . . With Charles d'OrhSans the rondel took the distinct 
shape we now assign to it, namely of fourteen lines on two 
rhymes, the first two lines repeating for the seventh and 
eighth and the final couplet. ... By the time of Octavien 
de Saint Oelais (1466-150-2) the rondel has nearly become 
the rondeau as we know it. 
Gleeson White, Ballades and Rondeaus, Int., p. Iviii. 
rondelet (ron'de-let), n. [< OF. rondelet, dim. 
of rondel, a roundel: see rondel, roundel, and 
cf. rundlet.} A poem of five lines and two re- 
frains. The refrains repeat the first line, generally two 
words, the rime-scheme being a, &(and refrain); a, b, 6 (and 
refrain). It has been written in English, but not much. 
Then haue you also a rondlette, the which doth alwayes 
end with one self same footeor repeticion, and was there- 
of (in my iudgment) called a rondelet. 
Gascoigne, Notes on Eng. Verse (Steele Glas., etc., ed. 
[Arber), 14. 
Rondeletia (ron-de-let'i-a), n. [NL. (Plumier, 
1703), named after Guillauine Rondelet (1507- 
1566 ?), a French professor of medicine.] A ge- 
nus of gamopetalous shrubs and trees of the 
order Rubiacese, type of the tribe Rondeletiex. 
It is characterized by a globose calyx bearing four or five 
narrow, persistent, and nearly equal lobes, by a wheel- 
shaped or salver-form corolla with a long slender tube 
and four or five obovate broadly imbricating lobes, and 
by the loculicidal capsule, which is small, rigid, globose, 
two-furrowed, and two-vaived. There are about 60 spe- 
cies, natives of the West Indies and tropical America 
from Mexico to the United States of Colombia, rarely ex- 
tending into Guiana and Peru. They bear opposite or 
whorled leaves, which are thin or coriaceous and sessile, 
furnished with broad stipules between the petioles. Their 
small flowers are white, yellow, or red, and usually in axil- 
lary flattened, rounded, or panicled cymes. Various hand- 
some species are cultivated under glass, among them It. 
odorata, with fragrant scarlet flowers, and R. versicolor, 
whose deep rose-colored flowers become paler after ex- 
pansion. Some species are still known as Rogiera, the 
name of a former genus, including species with connate 
stipules and corolla hairy in the throat. 
Rondeletieae (ronde-le-ti'e-e), n. pi. [NL. 
(A. P. de Candolle, 1830), < Hondeletia + -ex.} A 
tribe of gamopetalous plants of the order Rubi- 
acese, characterized by the exceedingly numer- 
ous minute albuminous wingless seeds which 
fill the two cells of the dry capsule, and by the 
regular corolla with imbricated or contorted 
lobes. It includes 14 genera of shrubs and trees, with 
stipulate leaves and cymose, spiked, or variously clustered 
flowers, and 2 genera of herbs, without stipules, bearing 
terminal three-forked cymes. The species are tropical 
and mainly American. See Rondeletia, the type. 
rondelle (ron-del'), . [< OF. rondelle, dim. of 
rond, round: see rondel, roundel.} 1. Some- 
thing round. 
5220 
A rondelle of flrwood is fixed normally to the tube by its 
centre, and gives a larger surface for the voice to act 
against. G. B. Prescott, Elect. Invent., p. 288. 
2. In metal., one of successive crusts which form 
upon the surface of molten metal while cooling, 
and which as they form are removed for further 
treatment. In copper-working these disks are also 
called rose-copper and rosettes. Suboxid of copper con- 
tained in them is removed by further refining. 
3. MHit.: (a) A small shield (15 inches in 
length) formerly used by pikemeu and arch- 
ers. (6) One of the iron disks, each having an 
opening in the center for the passage of a bolt, 
placed between the cheeks and stock of a field- 
gun carriage in bolting these parts together. 
(c) A semicircular bastion introduced by Al- 
bert Durer. It was about 300 feet in diameter, 
and contained spacious casemates Rondelle a 
polng, a name given to the very small round buckler of 
the sixteenth century, often fitted with a long and pointed 
spike, and serving, when held in the left hand, to parry 
the thrusts of a rapier instead of a dagger of any descrip- 
tion. See cuts under buckler and rondache. 
rondle (ron'dl), n. [< OF. rondel, a round, 
roundel: see round, roundel.} 1. Same as ron- 
delle. 2. The step of a ladder; a round. 
Yea, peradventure in as ill a case as hee that goes up a 
ladder, but slippeth off the rondeUs, or, when one breakes, 
falls downe in great danger. 
Rich Cabinet furnished with Varietie of Excellent Discrip- 
[lion* (1616). (Saret.) 
rondo (ron'do), M. [It. rondo, < F. rondeau : see 
rondeau.} 1. In music: (a) Same as round 1 , 7 
(e). (b) A setting of a rondeau or similar poem, 
(c) A work or movement in which a principal 
phrase or section is several times repeated in 
its original key in alternation with contrasted 
phrases or sections in the same or other keys. 
The succession of principal and subordinate phrases is 
often exactly regulated, but the form is open to wide vari- 
ations. In a sonata the last movement is often a rondo. 
2. A game of hazard played with small balls 
on a table. 
With card and dice, roulette wheels and rondo balls, he 
fooled himself to the top of his bent 
J. W. Palmer, The New and the Old, p. 229. 
Rondo form, in music, the form or method of composi- 
tion of a rondo : of ten opposed to sonata form. 
rondoletto (ron-do-let'6), n. [Dim. of rondo, 
q. v.] In music, a short or simple rondo. 
rondure (ron'dur), n. [< F. rondeur, roundness, 
< rond, round: see round 1 .] Around; acirele; 
a curve; a swell; roundness. Also roundure. 
[Obsolete or archaic.] 
All things rare 
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems. 
Shak., Sonnets, xxi. 
The shape [of a ring] remains, 
The rondure brave, the lilied loveliness, 
Gold as it was. Brotming, Ring and Book, I. 8. 
High-kirtled for the chase, and what was shown, 
Of maiden rondure, like the rose half-blown. 
Lowell, Endymion, iv. 
rone 1 (ron), . An earlier, now only dialectal, 
form of roe 2 . 
rone 2 , n. [< ME. rone, < Icel. runnr, older rudhr, 
a bush, grove.] 1. A shrub. 2. A thicket; 
brtishwood. Jamieson. [Scotch in both senses.] 
The lorde on a lyjt horce launces hyin after, 
As burne bolde vpon bent his bugle he blowej. 
He rechated, & r(ode] thurs ronej ful thyk, 
Suande this wylde swyn til the sunne schafted. 
Sir Qawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. 3.), 1. 1466. 
rone 3 (ron), n. An obsolete or dialectal form 
of rine 1 , raw 1 . 
rone 4 , n. Another form of roan 2 . 
rone 5 }. A Middle English preterit of rain 1 . 
rongH. An obsolete preterit and past partici- 
ple of ring 2 . 
rong' 2 t (rong), >i. A Middle English form of 
rung' 1 : 
rongeur (ron-zher'), [< F. rongeur, gnawer, 
< ranger, gnaw, nibble, OF. also chew the cud, 
= Pr. romiar = Sp. rumiar, < L. rumigare, chew 
the cud, ruminate, < rumen, throat, gullet : see 
ruminate.} A surgical forceps for gnawing or 
gouging bones. 
ronin (ro'nin), . ; pi. ronin or ronins. [Jap., 
< ro (= Chin, lang), wave, + nin (=Chin. jin), 
man ; lit. ' wave-man.'] A Japanese samurai, 
or two-sworded military retainer, who for any 
cause had renounced his clan, or who for some 
offense against his superior had been dismissed 
from service, and dispossessed of his estate, 
revenue, or pay ; a masterless man ; an outcast ; 
an outlaw. 
roniont, ronyont (run'yon), H. [Perhaps < OF. 
"roignon, < roingne, F. rogne, itch, scab, mange: 
see roin.} A mangy, scabby animal; also, a 
scurvy person. Also rnnnion. 
Out of my door, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you 
polecat, you ronyon! Shak., 11. W. of W., iv. 2. 195. 
roodebok 
ronnet, >' An obsolete form of run 1 . 
ronnenf. A Middle English past participle of 
run 1 . 
ronqilil (rong'kil), n. [Also ronchil; < Sp. ron- 
quiuo, slightly hoarse, dim. of ronco, hoarse, < 
L. raucun, hoarse: see raucous.} 1. A fish of 
the North Pacific, Batliymrmter xii/ntitus, of an 
elongate form with 'a long dorsal having only 
the foremost two or three rays inarticulate, 
frequenting moderately deep water with rocky 
grounds. 2. One of a group or family of fishes 
of which Batnymaster has been supposed to be 
a representative namely, the Icoxteidse. 
Ronsdorfer (ronz'dorf-er), . [So called from 
Ronsdorf, a town in Prussia.] A member of a 
sect of German millenarians of the eighteenth 
century : same as Ellerian. 
Ronsdorfian (ronz-dor'fi-an), n. [< Ronsdorf 
(see Ronsdorfer) + -ian.} Same as RonsdorJ'er. 
rontt, ii. Same as runt 1 . 
ronyont, See rmtion. 
roo't, n. [ME. roo, ro, < AS. rou- = OHG. roa, 
MHG. ro, G. ruhe = Icel. ro = Dan. ro, rest, 
= Sw. ro, fun, amusement.] Peace ; quiet- 
ness. 
Alias ! for doole what shall y doo? 
Now mon I ueuer haue rest ne roo. 
York Plays, p. 31. 
roo' 2 t, . A Middle English form of roe 1 . 
roo 3 t, n. [ME., < OF. roe, rone, < L. rota, a wheel : 
see roto 1 .] A wheel. 
And I salle redily rolle the roo at the gayneste, 
And reche the riche wyne in rynsede coupes. 
Morte Arthure (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3375. 
rood (r8d), w. [< ME. rood, rode, rod, < AS. 
rod, a rod, rood, cross: see rod 1 .} If. A rod. 
See rod 1 . 1. 2. A cross or crucifix; especial- 
ly, a large crucifix placed at the entrance to the 
choir in medieval churches, often supported on 
the rood-beam or rood-screen. Usually, after the 
fifteenth century, images of the Virgin Mary and St. John 
were placed the one on the one side and the other on the 
other side of the image of Christ, in allusion to John xix. 
26. See cut under rood-loft. 
Of the appeltre that our uerste fader then luther (evil) ap- 
pel uom 
In the manere that ichulle jou telle the swete rode com. 
Holy Rood (E. E. T. 8.), p. 18. 
No, by the rood, not so. Shak., Hamlet, ill. 4. 14. 
3. A name of various measures, (a) A measure 
of 5^ yards in length ; a rod, pole, or perch ; also, locally, 
a measure of 6, 7, or 8 yards, especially for hedging and 
ditching, (b) A square measure, the fourth part of a statute 
acre, equal to 40 square rods or square poles, or 1,210 square 
yards. This is the sense in which rood is generally used 
as a measure. See acre. 
A terrace- walk, and half a rood 
Of land, set out to plant a wood. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. vi. 5. 
(c) A square pole, or 30J square yards, used in estimating 
masons work ; also, locally, a measure of 36, 42$, 44, 49, 
or 64 square yards, (d) A cubic measure for masons' work 
of 64, 72, etc., cubic yards. Holy rood, the cross of Christ ; 
a crucifix. 
The holi rode the swete tre rijt is to habbe in munde, 
That hath fram stronge deth ibrojt to lyue al mankunde. 
Holy Rood (E. E. T. S.), p. 18. 
The English answered [the Normans] with their own 
battle-cry, " God's Rood! Holy Rood!" 
Dickens, England, vii. 
Holy-rood day. (a) The feast of the Finding of the 
Cross, celebrated on May 3d. 
The knights . . . vpon holy Rood day in May made their 
musters before the Commissioners ordained. 
Hakluyfs Voyages, II. 76. 
(b) Same as Holy-cross day (which see, under doj/1). 
The holi Koode was i-founde as 30 witeth in May, 
Honoured he was seththe in Septembre the holi Rode day. 
Holy Rood (E. E. T. S.), p. 49. 
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there, 
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald . . . 
At Holmedon met. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., i. 1. 52. 
Rood's bodyt, the body on the cross that is, Christ's 
body. 
lie be even with him ; and get you gone, or, I sweare by 
the rood's body, I'le lay you by the heeles. 
Lyly, Mother Bombie, v. 8. 
rood-arch (rod'arch), H. The arch in a church 
between the nave and the choir : so called from 
the rood being placed over it. 
rood-altar (r6d*al"tar), n. Au altar standing 
against the outer side of the rood-screen. 
rood-beam (rod'bem), . [< ME. roodc beem; 
< rood + beam.} A beam extending across the 
entrance to the choir of a church for supporting 
the rood. Also called beam. 
He deyde whan I cam fro Jerusalem, 
And litn ygrave under the roode beem. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 496. 
Rood-day (rod'da), . Holy-rood day. See 
under rood. 
roodebok (ro'de-bok), n. [< D. rood, red, + 
ftofr, buck: see red 1 and ftwcfc 1 .] The Natal 
