round-backed 
round-backed (roimd'bakt), a. Having a round 
or curved back ; showing unusual convexity of 
back, especially between the shoulders ; round- 
shouldered. 
round-bend (round'bend), a. Bent in a certain 
curve : specifically said of fly-hooks. 
round-crested (round'kres'ted), a. Having a 
round crest ; fan-crested : specific in the phrase 
round-crested duck, the hooded merganser, Lo- 
phodytes cucullatus. Catesby, 1731. See cut 
under merganser. 
roundel (roun'del), w. [Also roundle, rondel, ron- 
dle, rundle, in obsolete, technical, or dialectal 
uses ; < ME. roundel, runclel, rondel, < OF. ron- 
del, later rondeau, anything round and flat, a 
round plate, a round cake, etc., a scroll, dim. 
of rond, round : see round 1 . Cf . Sp. redondilla 
= Pg. redondilha, a roundel : see redondilla. Cf . 
rondeau, rondel.] 1. Anything round; around 
form or figure ; a circle, or something of circular 
form. [Archaic except in some technical uses.] 
A roundel to set dishes on for soiling the tablecloth. 
Baret, 1580. (ffoBtmB.) 
The Spaniardes, vniting themselues, gathered their 
whole Fleete close together into a roundell. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 598. 
Come, put in his leg in the middle roundel [round hole 
of stocks]. B. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv. 4. 
Scales and roundles to mount the pinnacles and highest 
pieces of divinity. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 12. 
Those roundels of gold fringe, drawn out with cypress. 
Scott, Kenilworth, xx. 
The roundels or "bulls'-eyes," so largely used in do- 
mestic glazing. Olass-makiny, p. 92. 
Specifically (o) In her., a circular figure used as a bear- 
ing, and commonly blazoned, not roun- 
del, but by a special name according to 
the tincture. Also roundle, roundlet. 
(6) In medieval armor: (1) A round 
shield made of osiers, wood, sinews, 
or ropes covered with leather, or plates 
of metal, or stuck full of nails in con- 
centric circles or other figures : some- 
times made wholly of metal, and gen- 
erally convex, but sometimes concave, 
and both with and without the umbo argent thr^roundeis 
or boss. (2) A piece of metal Of Circu- counterchanged. 
lar or nearly circular form, (a) A very 
small plate sewed or riveted to cloth or leather as part of 
a coat of fence, (ft) A larger plate, used to protect the 
body at the d^faut de la cuirasse, where that on the left 
side was fixed, that on the right side movable to allow of 
the couching of the lance, and at the knee-joint, usually 
one on each side, covering the articulation. Also called 
disk, (c) In fort., a bastion of a semicircular form, intro- 
duced by Albert Diirer. It was about 300 feet in diame- 
ter, and contained roomy casemates for troops, (d) In 
arch., a molding of semicircular profile. J. T. Clarke, 
(e) A fruit-trencher of circular form. 
2f. A dance in which the dancers form a ring 
or circle. Also called round. 
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song. 
Shak., M. N. D., U. 2. 1. 
3. Same as rondel: specifically applied by 
Swinburne to a form apparently invented by 
himself. This consists of nine lines with two refrains, 
arranged as follows ; a, b, a (and refrain); 6, a, b; a, b, a 
(and refrain) the refrain, as in the rondeau and rondel, 
being part of the flrst line. The measure is unrestricted, 
and the refrain generally rimes with the b lines. 
Many a himpne for your holy daies 
That highten balades, roundels, virelaies. 
Chaucer, Good Women. 
All day long we rode 
Thro' the dim land against a rushing wind, 
That glorious roundel echoing in our ears. 
Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien. 
roundelay (roun'de-la), n. [< OF. rondelet, 
dim. of rondel, a roundel : see roundel. The 
spelling roundelay appar. simulates E. lay%.~\ 
1. Any song in which an idea, line, or refrain 
is continually repeated. 
Per. It fell upon a holy eve, 
Wil. Hey, ho, hallidaye! 
Per. When holy fathers went to shrieve ; 
Wil. Now ginneth this roundelay. 
Wil. Now endeth our roundelay. 
Cud. Sicker, sike a roundle never heard I none. 
Spenser, Shep. Cal., August. 
Loudly sung his roundelay of love. Dryden. 
While linnet, lark, and blackbird gay 
Sing forth her nuptial roundelay. 
Scott, Eokeby, ii. 10. 
The breath of Winter . . . plays a roundelay 
Of death among the bushes and the leaves. 
Keats, Isabella, st. 32. 
2. Same as rondeau, I. 
The roundelay, in which, after each strophe of the song, 
a chorus interposes with the same refrain. 
J. Sully, Sensation and Intuition, p. 214. 
3. A dance in a circle ; a round or roundel. 
The fawns, satyrs, and nymphs did dance their rounde- 
lays. Ilo/rHl. 
As doth the billow there upon I'harybdis, 
That breaks itself on that which it encounters, 
So here the folk must dance their roundelay. 
Longfellow, tr. of Dante's Inferno, vii. 24. 
5245 
roundeleer (roun-de-ler'), n. [< roundel + -eer.~\ 
A writer of roundels or roundelays. [Rare.] 
In this path he must thus have preceded ... all con- 
temporary roundeleers. Scribner's May., IV. 250. 
rounder (roun'der), H. [< round 1 , !., + -er 1 .] 
1. One who or that which rounds or makes 
round ; specifically, a tool for rounding, or 
rounding out or off, as a cylindrical rock-boring 
tool with an indented face, a plane used by 
wheelwrights for rounding off tenons, etc. 2. 
One who habitually goes round, or from point 
to point and back, for any purpose ; especially, 
one who continually goes the round of misde- 
meanor, arrest, trial, imprisonment, and re- 
lease, as a habitual drunkard or petty thief. 
G had made himself conspicuous as a rounder, . . . 
and occupied much of his time in threatening employes 
of the various railroad companies. 
Philadelphia Times, 1886. 
A very large proportion of the inmates [of the work- 
house on Blackwell's Island] are " old rounders " who re- 
turn to the Island again and again. 
Christian Union, Aug. 25, 1887. 
During our civil war the regiments which were com- 
posed of plug-uglies, thugs, and midnight rounders, with 
noses laid over to one side as evidence of their prowess 
in bar-room mills and paving-stone riots, were generally 
cringing cowards in battle. The Century, XXXVI. 249. 
3. Something well rounded or filled out; a 
round or plump oath, or the like. [Colloq.] 
Though we can all swear a rounder in the stockyard or 
on the drafting camp, as a rule we are a happy-go-lucky, 
peaceable lot. Mrs. Campbell Praed, Head Station, p. 33. 
4. A round; an act or instance of going or pass- 
ing round. Specifically (a) A round of demonstrative 
speech or procedure : as, they gave him a rounder (a round 
of applause). 
Mrs. Cork . . . was off amid a rounder of " Thank'e 
ma'am, thank'e." R. D. Blackmore, Christowell, II. viii. 
(b) A complete run in the game of rounders. 
A rounder was when a player struck the ball with such 
force as to enable him to run all four bases and "get 
home." The Century, XXXIX. 637. 
5. pi. (a) A game played with a soft and small 
ball and a bat of about 2 feet in length. About 
four or five players are on each side. The game is played 
on a ground in the form of a rectangle or pentagon with 
a base at each angle ; on one of these bases, called the 
"home," the batsman stands. When the ball is thrown 
toward the batter he tries to drive it away as far as he 
can and secure a run completely round the boundary, or 
over any of the parts of it, before he can be hit by the ball 
secured and thrown at him by one of the opposite party. 
In some forms of the game the batter is declared out if 
he fails to strike the ball, if he drives it too short a dis- 
tance to secure a run, or if the ball from his bat is caught 
in the air by one of the opposite party. From rounders 
the game of base-ball has been developed, (ft) In Eng- 
land, a game like fives, but played with a foot- 
ball. 
round-faced (round'fast), a. Having a round 
face: as, the round-faced macaque, Macacus 
cyclopis. 
I can give no other account of him but that he was 
pretty tall, round-faced, and one, I'm sure, I ne'er had 
seen before. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, v. i. 
roundfish (round'fish), n. 1. The common 
carp, Cyprinus carpio. 2. The shad- waiter or 
pilot-fish, Coregonm quadrilateralis ; theMeno- 
monee whitefish, abundant in the Great Lake re- 
gion and northward. See cut under shad-waiter. 
roundhand(round'hand), n. [< round' 1 + hand.] 
1. A style of penmanship in which the letters 
are round and full. 2. A style of bowling in 
cricket in which the arm is brought round hori- 
zontally. See round-arm. Imp. Diet. 
Roundhead (round'hed), n. [< round 1 + head.] 
1. In Eng. hist., a member of the Parliamenta- 
rian or Puritan party during the civil war: so 
called opprobriously by the Royalists or Cava- 
liers, in allusion to the Puritans' custom of wear- 
ing their hair closely cut, while the Cavaliers 
usually wore theirs in long ringlets. The Round- 
heads were one of the two great parties in English politics 
first formed about 1641, and continued under the succeed- 
ing names of Whigs and Liberals, as opposed to the Cava- 
liers, Tories, and Conservatives respectively. 
But our Scene 's London now ; and by the rout 
We perish, if the Roundheads be about. 
Cowley, The Guardian, Prol. 
2. [1. c.] The weakfish or squeteague, Cynoseion 
regalis. [Virginia.] 
round-headed (round'hed"ed), . [< roundl + 
head + -erf 2 .] 1 . Having a round head or top : 
as, a round-headed nail or rivet. 
Roundhead.ed arches and windows. 
Bp. Lowth, Life of Wykeham, 6. (Latham.) 
Above was a simple round-headed clerestory, and out- 
side are the same slight beginnings of ornamental arcades. 
E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 104. 
2. Hence, having the hair of the head cut short ; 
close-cropped; specifically, belonging or per- 
roundly 
taining to the Roundheads or Parliamentarians. 
[Rare.] 
The round-headed rebels of Westminster Hall. 
Scott, Rokeby, v. 20 (song). 
roundhouse (round 'hous), n. If. A lockup; 
a station-house; a watch-house. Foote. 2. 
Naut. : (a) A cabin or apartment on the after 
part of the quarter-deck, having the poop for 
its roof : formerly sometimes called the coach ; 
also, the poop itself. 
Our captain sent his skiff and fetched aboard us the 
masters of the other two ships, and Mr. Pynchon, and they 
dined with us in the round-house. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 14. 
(6) An erection abaft the mainmast for the ac- 
commodation of the officers or crew of a ves- 
sel. 3. On American railroads, a building, 
usually round and built of brick, having stalls 
for the storage of locomotives, with tracks lead- 
ing from them to a central turn-table. In Great 
Britain called engine-house or engine-shed. 4. 
A privy. [Southwestern U. S.] 
rounding (roun'ding), . [Verbal n . of round 1 , 
i 1 .] 1 . In bookbinding, the operation of shaping 
the folded and sewed sheets into a slightly con- 
vex form at the back. It is done either by hand- 
tools or by machinery. 2. The action or atti- 
tude of a whale when curving its small in order 
to dive. Also rounding-out. 3. Naut., old rope 
or strands wound about a rope to prevent its 
chafing. 
rounding-adz (roun'ding-adz), . A form of 
adz having a curved blade for hollowing out 
timber. 
rounding-machine (rorni'ding-ma-shen''), n. 
One of several kinds of machines for producing 
round forms or roundness of form. Especially 
(o) A machine for sawing out circular heads for casks and 
barrels, (6) A machine for rounding the backs of books, 
(c) A machine for forming the rounded depressions in 
shoe-sole blanks; a sole-stamping machine, (d) A ma- 
chine for making rods and spindles ; a rod-machine or 
dowel-machine, (e) A cornering-machine for chamfering 
off the angles of stuff in tool-making and carriage-work. 
rounding-OUt (roun'ding -out), n. Same as 
rounding, 2. 
rounding-plane (roun'ding-plan), u. A wood- 
working tool for rounding and finishing the 
handles of rakes or brooms, 
chair-rounds, and other round 
pieces. It has a plane-bit placed 
parallel to the axis of a circular hole, 
and projecting slightly. The rough 
stuff is passed through the hole, and 
rotated against the cutting edge. 
rounding-tool (roun'ding-tol), 
n. 
torn-tool having a semicylin- 
drical groove, used as a swage 
for rounding a rod, the stem of a bolt, and the 
like. E. H. Knight. 2. In saddlery, a kind of 
draw-plate for shaping round leather straps. 
It consists of a pair of jaws with corresponding semicylin- 
drical grooves of various sizes on both sides. The jaws 
can be locked shut in order that the strap may be passed 
through the cylindrical openings thus formed. 
round-iron (round'i'ern), n. A plumbers' tool 
RoundintT- plane or 
Witchet. 
1 . In forging, a top- or bot- stock ^piece"^ be 
" :d ; d, d, ban- 
Round-iron. 
a, head, in use made red-hot and passed over the joint to be smoothed 
until the latter is sufficiently heated for the application of the solder ; 
6 , handle. 
with a bulbous head, for finishing soldered 
work. 
roundish (roun'dish), a. [< rouncp- + -ish 1 .'] 
Somewhat round ; nearly round ; inclining to 
roundness : as, a roundish seed or leaf. 
roundishness (roun'dish-nes), . The state of 
being roundish. Imp. Diet. 
roundle (roun'dl), . Same as roundel. 
round-leaved (round'levd), a. Having round 
leaves Round-leaved cornel, horsemint, spinach. 
See the nouns. 
roundlet (round'let), n. [< F. rondelet, dim. of 
OF. rondel, roundel : see roundel. Cf. rundlet, 
runlefi, roundelay.] 1. A little circle ; a roun- 
del. 
Like roundlets that arise 
By a stone cast into a standing brook. 
Drayton, Barons' Wars, v. 60. 
2f. Same as rundlet. 3. In her., same as roun- 
del. 4. pi. The fuller rounded part of the hood 
worn as a head-dress in the middle ages. See 
roundly (round'li), (idr. [trou >td l + -?y 2 .] 1. 
In a round form. [Rare.] 2. In a round or 
positive manner; frankly, bluntly, vigorously, 
