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

When Lithuanian police began rounding up members of the parcel plot they discovered a further cache of explosives, buried in food cans at a cemetery.

From BBC

They’ve also imposed stricter rules on package sizes, so that dimensions get rounded up.

From The Wall Street Journal

Samoyeds are dogs raised in Asia to round up reindeer.

From Literature

Lawyers defending the humanitarian staff have also been rounded up.

From BBC

That provision was offered because Warner board members have expressed concerns that Paramount may not be able to round up sufficient financing to close such a gargantuan deal.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• bring in
• bring together
• herd