Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

around

[uh-round]

Example Sentences Origin

adverb

in a circle, ring, or the like; so as to surround a person, group, thing, etc.: The crowd gathered around.

on all sides; about: His land is fenced all around.

in all directions from a center or point of reference: He owns the land for miles around.

in a region or area neighboring a place: all the country around.

in circumference: The tree was 40 inches around.

EXPAND

in a circular or rounded course: to fly around and around.

through a sequence or series, as of places or persons: to show someone around.

through a recurring period, as of time, especially to the present or a particular time: when spring rolls around again.

by a circuitous or roundabout course: The driveway to the house goes around past the stables.

10.

to a place or point, as by a circuit or circuitous course: to get around into the navigable channel.

11.

with a rotating course or movement: The wheels turned around.

12.

in or to another or opposite direction, course, opinion, etc.: Sit still and don't turn around. After our arguments, she finally came around.

13.

back into consciousness: The smelling salts brought her around.

14.

in circulation, action, etc.; about: He hasn't been around lately. The play has been around for years. When will she be up and around?

15.

somewhere near or about; nearby: I'll be around if you need me.

16.

to a specific place: He came around to see me.

COLLAPSE

preposition

17.

about; on all sides; encircling; encompassing: a halo around his head.

18.

so as to encircle, surround, or envelop: to tie paper around a package.

19.

on the edge, border, or outer part of: a skirt with fringe around the bottom.

20.

from place to place in; about: to get around town.

21.

in all or various directions from: to look around one.

EXPAND

22.

in the vicinity of: the country around Boston.

23.

approximately; about: It's around five o'clock.

24.

here and there in: There are many cafés around the city.

25.

somewhere in or near: to stay around the house.

26.

to all or various parts of: to wander around the country.

27.

so as to make a circuit about or partial circuit to the other side of: to go around the lake; to sail around a cape.

28.

reached by making a turn or partial circuit about: the church around the corner.

29.

so as to revolve or rotate about a center or axis: the earth's motion around its axis.

30.

personally close to: Only the few advisers around the party leader understood his real motives.

31.

so as to get by a difficulty: They got around the lack of chairs by sitting on the floor.

32.

so as to have a foundation in: The novel is built around a little-known historical event.

COLLAPSE

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Around is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Idiom

33.

been around, having had much worldly experience: He's been around and isn't likely to be taken in.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English around(e). See a-¹, round

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To around

Example Sentences

Spur the engine as intended and there's surprising muscle either around town or on the open road.

Mexican law-enforcement officials have called on universities around the country to beef up their security.

Protesters around the world demand that something must be done.

EXPAND

Spur the engine as intended and there's surprising muscle either around town or on the open road.

Mexican law-enforcement officials have called on universities around the country to beef up their security.

Protesters around the world demand that something must be done.

The planet orbits inside a disk of material around the star that's no more than two million years old.

Hubble provides new evidence for dark matter around small galaxies.

Humpback whale female with cooperating males around her.

Build basins of soil around the plants to direct hose water to roots.

Just what soldiers are looking for: a creepy, quadrupedic robot to haul around their heavy gear.

Around the world, the descriptions and messages of textbooks and curriculums vary widely.

Prisons were built around the noble ideas of rehabilitation.

The condition has been likened to a handful of tortoises crawling around the bottom of a well.

Around the world, clothing and adornments distinguish people and cultures.

Click here to see a map of dead zones around the world.

Pebbles are too smooth and round to make a suitable paving if left free to roll around.

Window smashing and graffiti followed the course of protestors around the downtown area.

Never has food moved around the world at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years.

As nations around the planet wrestle with life-or-death decisions about whether and how to confront.

It does, in short, precisely what a city bus is supposed to do-make it feasible for people to get around without a car.

They are so varied in flavor and nutrition that a whole diet can be built around them.

Around dawn, heart rate and blood pressure gradually rise.

All the comforts of civilization but rustic enough to remind you nature is all around you.

Hot water discovered around a giant carbon star requires a new theory for the chemistry around stars to be explained.

Share your pictures from around the grill as well as your favorite recipes.

The contest invites architecture and engineering programs from universities around the world to build small, solar-powered houses.

Those against the cut back will trump up fear around the globe.

Students will examine their own modern culture and compare it to other cultures around the world.

So to get around it, the whales first increased the amplitude of its call to keep in touch with other whales during loud periods.

Pour or shovel in remaining lava stone around pipe to hold it in place.

If they shift nervously or glance around the room, there might be something they're hiding.

Several teachers and a social worker seated around a table in the school's cramped administrative offices nodded in agreement.

The shoe must fit the foot and not the other way around.

Countries' stimulus plans should be built around common principles, even if they differ in the details.

But throughout the period, the planet has wobbled on its path around the sun.

Astronomers have gotten the best view yet of a potential planet-forming disk around a young star.

So those tasty leaves aren't around long, especially in warm weather.

Governments around the world are making data available.

Then he began to think bigger, creating awards for first-generation-college students at public universities around the country.

They are held every four years in a different place around the world.

Check out the sculpture garden while the kids climb around in playhouses hand-carved from stumps.

Naturally, enterprising hackers are already routing around the perceived damage.

Other people crowd around tables to check out a mosquito-repelling, battery-powered.

From tiny worms to enormous whales, they all have their own ways of getting around in the sea.

Around the pond, water-thrifty perennials and shrubs provide splashes of color.

Voters around the country are experiencing problems this morning as voting machines break down and long lines form.

Other bubbles are thought to have formed self-replicating substances by attracting chemicals from around them.

Put a bead of silicone caulking around the inside of the outer container.

But the controversy hasn't gone away, as his findings began to be investigated in laboratories around the world.

Check out where different landforms are around the world on the map below.

It is variously lengthened to management by wandering about or management by walking around.

Around the world, suggestions abound for how to cope with the effects of one too many.

News and research about endangered species from around the world,.

Families sat huddled around a wooden appliance, which used a large amount.

From downtown finds to weekend escapes, here are some favorite things to do around town.

Around the developed world, young workers are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed as their older counterparts.

See how gold mines around the world have changed the.

Several exterior and interior shots were filmed around the museum.

Learn how to create your own feast from these camping recipes created by some of the best chefs around the country.

Although they sometimes face an uphill climb to break even, bike-sharing programs glide into cities around the world.

Images taken by x-ray of insects with these changes and others found that tissue growth around the inserted probes was good.

The best teaching doesn't always happen around a seminar table.

Instead of selling their fish at beach auctions, the fishermen would call around to find the best price.

Rodents and primates around the world can breathe a little easier.

Instead of traveling around its host star in the same direction the star.

With ominous budget signs looming, dozens of chief executives at colleges around the country are forgoing pay.

The idea that a dearth of available women hurts male longevity has been around for some time.

So many sacs are bobbing around that the waves seem to be covered in a veil of mauve.

News and research about endangered species from around the world.

With the midday sun glinting off the bay around us, he pops it.

Five academics from around the world plan to open a new.

Our correspondents explain business culture, airport survival and how to enjoy yourself in cities around the world,.

By now the effort to control light pollution has spread around the globe.

Planet hunters have discovered the biggest new world yet and it is going the wrong way around its home sun.

Twilight calls for the woodsy comforts of drinks and a chat around a toasty fire.

With the holiday season upon us, digital photos are going to be flying around everywhere.

Put this story down for a moment and take a look at the undergraduates around your desk, outside your office, or out on the quad.

The government shifts money around a bit by taxing and redistributing.

As you scroll through the forest, move your mouse around.

It's fairly easy to wrap our heads around the notion of the mother-child bond.

Choose a tall plant for the back of the pot, shorter accents to go around it, and low trailers to spill over the edges.

They've built the wholemarketing around this incredible saga, which is actually totallydisheartened the record company.

Higher education may be a public good, but making a college education available to many more people around the world.

Newspapers remain at the forefront of defending and promoting press freedom around the world.

All around them palolo worms are thrashing in vast numbers, as thick as vermicelli soup.

The wreaths hang from nearly invisible fishing line looped around the tops of the.

Those are clouds forming around the jet, by the way.

In fact, he thinks, having a crowd around often makes things better.

The singing of the winter-resident birds is among the first signs that spring is around the corner.

Hire a pedicab to pedal you around the neighborhood's attractions.

If you don't have a naked mole rat around to measure, well, your chances in the academic job market are basically shot anyway.

States will set up carefully regulated exchanges to make it easier for individuals to shop around for the right policy.

Witness the awesome power of nature through incredible footage of eruptions and lava flows from around the world.

Among the mishaps we've observed recently in neighborhoods around the.

All you have to do is walk around the well-kept campus, with its glossy-brochure students and parking lots.

Audiences are at once fragmenting into niches and consolidating around blockbusters.

Mulch is useful over an area of bare soil and around planted areas.

Reading will make you more informed and more aware of the world around you.

Build a berm of soil around the plant to form a watering basin.

Around the world, higher education faces pressure to respond better to the needs of society.

Place shorter or trailing plants around the perimeter of the container.

Last month it multiplied with the same brainless abandon as fruit flies around a rotting banana.

Pretty apple and almond blossom around pear, with underlying flintiness.

The latest wave of immigrants settling around this famed harbor is bringing with it a particularly tough educational challenge.

Instead, such plants are dug from the growing field with a ball of soil around their roots, and the soil ball.

Often it revolves around acquaintances, alcohol, and.

In the days that followed, the rough outline of his biography was recounted in newspapers around the world.

But some young librarians are rallying around the precocious entrepreneur because his work may make.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

around (əˈraʊnd)

—*prep*
1.	situated at various points in: a lot of shelves around the house
2.	from place to place in: driving around Ireland
3.	somewhere in or near: to stay around the house
4.	approximately in: it happened around 1957, I think

—*adv*
5.	surrounding, encircling, or enclosing: a band around her head
6.	in all directions from a point of reference: he owns the land for ten miles around
7.	in the vicinity, esp restlessly but idly: to wait around; stand around
8.	here and there; in no particular place or direction: dotted around
9.	informal (of people) active and prominent in a particular area or profession: some pop stars are around for only a few years
10.	informal present in some place (the exact location being inexact): he's around here somewhere
11.	informal in circulation; available: that type of phone has been around for some years now
12.	informal to many places, so as to have gained considerable experience, often of a worldly or social nature: he gets around; I've been around

usage In American English, around is usually used instead of round in adverbial and prepositional senses, except in a few fixed phrases such as all year round. The use of around in adverbial senses is less common in British English

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

around

c.1300, from phrase on round. Rare before 1600. In sense of "here and there with no fixed direction" it is 1776, Amer.Eng. (properly about). Of time, from 1888. To have been around "gained worldly experience" is from 1927, U.S. colloquial.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

around

In addition to the idioms beginning with around, also see beat about (around) the bush; been around; boss someone around; bring around; cast about (around); come around; enough to go around; every time one turns around; fool around; fuck around; full circle (what goes around comes around); get around; get around to; go around in circles; hang around; horse around; kick around; kid around; knock about (around); know one's way around; mess around; nose about (around); pal around with; play around; poke around; push around; rally around; roll around; run around in circles; run around like a chicken; run around with; run rings around; screw around; scrounge around; shop around; sleep around; stick around; talk around; tear around; throw one's weight around; turn around; twist around one's finger; up and about (around). Also see under round.