roundhouse
Americannoun
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roundhouses
plural
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a building for the servicing and repair of locomotives, built around a turntable in the form of some part of a circle.
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Nautical. a cabin on the after part of a quarterdeck.
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Slang. a punch in which the arm is typically brought straight out to the side or rear of the body and in which the fist describes an exaggerated circular motion.
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Also called round trip. Pinochle. a meld of one king and queen of each suit.
noun
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a circular building in which railway locomotives are serviced or housed, radial tracks being fed by a central turntable
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slang boxing
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a swinging punch or style of punching
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( as modifier )
a roundhouse style
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pinochle a meld of all four kings and queens
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an obsolete word for jail
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obsolete a cabin on the quarterdeck of a sailing ship
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of roundhouse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
My roundhouse kicks were decent, but I couldn’t do a somersault without wanting to vomit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
He left the Air Force in 1962 and set up a martial arts studio in Los Angeles, finding his calling in teaching and delivering roundhouse kicks.
From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026
Come the end of the tournament that combination was still clicking, with France trailing by a point deep into the second half against England, Dupont's roundhouse box kick set up Bielle-Biarrey's fourth try.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
Each roundhouse roof had three layers: insulating straw topped by turf and completed with clay -- making them warm and waterproof but still well ventilated.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2024
He tied one end of a hawser to a pillar and passed the other about the roundhouse top, taking the slack up, so that no one’s toes could touch the ground.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
One of the main roundhouses, with almost fifty square metres of floor space, appeared to have distinct activity zones comparable to rooms in a modern home.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2024
The inhabitants lived in a clutch of thatched roundhouses built on wooden stilts above a channel of the River Nene, which empties into the North Sea.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2024
But it remains unclear if the majority of the hundreds of roundhouses were built before, during or after the tower was in use.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2022
These fortified roundhouses, made with with dry stone walls, were built in the period from 100 BC to 100 AD, and it’s thought Dun Carloway probably sprang up in the 1st century AD.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 28, 2017
The torch was applied to two roundhouses, to railroad sheds, shops and offices, cars and locomotives.
From Historical Essays by James Ford Rhodes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
