roundhouse

See also: round house

English

Alternative forms

• round house

Etymology

From round +‎ house.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Noun

roundhouse (plural roundhouses)

1. A circular prison, especially a small local lockup or station house. [from 15th c.]
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 137:

     [T]he gentlemen in the coffee room insisted upon the watch being called, or a constable. With considerable difficulty the two heroes were carried off to the round-house, and there lodged for the night.

2. (nautical, now chiefly historical) The uppermost room or cabin of any note upon the stern of a ship. [from 17th c.]
3. (nautical, now historical) A privy near the bow of a vessel, especially as reserved for officers. [from 19th c.]
4. (rail transport) A circular building in which locomotives are housed. [from 19th c.]
   • 1948 November and December, “Crewe M.P.D. to be Modernised”, in Railway Magazine, page 372:

     Crewe North Motive Power Depot is to be modernised completely. This includes the provision of a new coaling plant, ash handling plant, and two new locomotive sheds of the latest roundhouse type, each with 32 roads radiating from a 70-ft. dia. turntable.

   • 2020 March 25, “Network News: HS2 work uncovers oldest roundhouse”, in Rail, page 16:

     Archaeologists working on HS2 in Birmingham have uncovered the remains of what is believed to be the world's oldest railway roundhouse at Curzon Street station.

5. (archaeology) A prehistoric dwelling typical of northwest Europe in the Iron Age and Bronze Age. [from 19th c.]
   • 2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 66:

     A central stone slab cist containing the burial was surrounded by a circles of stones placed on edge, probably to represent the round house in which the deceased had lived.

6. (chiefly US) A punch or kick delivered with an exaggerated sweeping movement. [from 20th c.]
7. (card games) In the game of pinochle, a meld consisting of a queen and king in each of the four suits.

Derived terms

• Atlantic roundhouse
• roundhouse kick

 

Related terms

• (rail transport) engine shed

Translations

a circular building in which locomotives are housed

• Bulgarian: депо (bg) n (depo)
• Czech: rotunda (cs) f
• Finnish: veturitalli
• Irish: teach lár deice m
• Japanese: 円形機関車庫 (enkeikikanshakou)
• Russian: ве́ерное депо́ n (véjernoje depó)

A prehistoric dwelling typical of northwest Europe

• Galician: casa circular f
• German: Rundhaus n
• Irish: teach cruinn m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rundhus n

• Russian круглый дом m (kruglyj dom)
• Scottish Gaelic: taigh-cruinn m

Verb

roundhouse (third-person singular simple present roundhouses, present participle roundhousing, simple past and past participle roundhoused)

1. To punch or kick with an exaggerated sweeping movement.
   • 2008 March 16, Nathaniel Fick, “Worries Over Being ‘Slimed’”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     We focused on the nerve-agent feint, and got roundhoused by the insurgent hook.

   • 2009, Diane Tullson, Riley Park, page 18:

     I'm on my feet and my fist is roundhousing and I feel flesh. I hit again, and teeth crack under my fist. I hear voices and they're shouting and a light burns into my face.