in the round


Visible from all sides, as in Jerry's done an excellent job in this interview, really portraying the senator in the round. This expression, which dates from about 1800, was at first used for a free-standing piece of sculpture (as opposed to a relief on a wall), and a century later for a theatrical stage (called theater-in-the-round) so placed that the audience could see a performance from all sides. Since the 1920s it has also been used figuratively for someone or something seen three-dimensionally, as in the example.

Words Nearby in the round

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use in the round in a sentence

  • The curtain lifted on his theater-in-the-round set to reveal models perched on the white horses of a mirrored carousel.

    Paris’s Fashion Finale | Robin Givhan | October 6, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • It stood like an alabaster stele in the center of an immense chamber arranged like a theater-in-the-round.

    The Ambassador | Samuel Kimball Merwin