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

---

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.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

round up

Madrid deployed police and military forces to round up most migrants and escort them to the border with Morocco by Saturday evening.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

Mr. Weidensaul’s well-timed effort to round up good news shows that there is indeed hope for endangered birds across the planet—and that saving them also saves the world.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

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 ● Jan. 28, 2026

When she spots a hawk flying overhead, Davis calls for one of her two sons to be sure to round up the few chickens roaming around.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2026

While the authorities went to round up Morrison, they also made sure that a doctor went to check on Mollie Burkhart.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Related Words

• bring in
• bring together
• herd