round up

British  

verb

1. to gather (animals, suspects, etc) together

   to round ponies up

2. to raise (a number) to the nearest whole number or ten, hundred, or thousand above it Compare round down

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noun

1. the act of gathering together livestock, esp cattle, so that they may be branded, counted, or sold

2. any similar act of collecting or bringing together

   a roundup of today's news

3. a collection of suspects or criminals by the police, esp in a raid

round up Idioms  

1. Collect or gather in a body, as in We'll have to round up some more volunteers for the food drive, or The police rounded up all the suspects. This term comes from the West, where since the mid-1800s it has been used for collecting livestock by riding around the herd and driving the animals together. By about 1875 it was extended to other kinds of gathering together.

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Example Sentences

I was itching to get our big Sunday dinner over with so I could round up a couple more Wonders.

From Literature

A few weeks after he was deported, another group of ghetto residents was rounded up and marched to the train depot.

From Literature

In the spirit of nostalgia, we’ve rounded up 16 moments that bring us back to that time.

From Los Angeles Times

A core of Minneapolis activists is playing a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with the federal agents deployed in force to the midwestern city to round up undocumented immigrants.

From Barron's

I’d rather be outside with the men, rounding up the goats and cooping the chickens for the night, feeling hot inside my coat from the effort as my breath fogs out in the cold.

From Literature

Related Words

• bring in
• bring together
• herd