round, to whisper. King John, ii. 1. 566. In prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Roun). ME. rownen (Chaucer, C. T. D. 241); OE. rūnian.
round, a dance in which the performers move in a ring; a song by two or more persons in turn. Macbeth, iv. 1. 130; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, i. 2 (Thenot).
round: phr. gentlemen of the round, soldiers whose business it was to go round and inspect the sentinels and watches. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 5 (E. Knowell); ‘The round? an excellent way to train up soldiers’, Middleton, The Witch, i. 1 (near the end).
round, plain-spoken, direct. Middleton, A Mad World, i. 2 (Harebrain); Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 104; Hamlet, iii. 1. 192.
roundly, readily, without hesitation or preface. Taming Shrew, iii. 2. 216; iv. 4. 108; v. 2. 21; Richard II, ii. 1. 122; ‘Will come off roundly’ (i.e. will pay handsomely), Middleton, The Widow, iv. 2 (Latrocinio); in a plain outspoken manner, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 59). Still in prov. use (EDD.).
rous, with a bounce, bang! Buckingham, The Rehearsal, iii. 2 (Bayes). ‘Rouse’ (pronounced with voiceless s), meaning ‘noisily’, ‘with a crash’, is in prov. use in Devon and Somerset (EDD.).
rouse, a bumper, a full draught of liquor; ‘I have took a rouse or two too much’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iii. 4. 10; a drinking bout, Hamlet, i. 2. 126; Marlowe, Faustus, iii. 4. 20. Norw. dial. ruus, a headache from drinking (Aasen); Dan. rus, intoxication: sove rusen ud, to sleep out one’s drunken fit; see Larsen; cp. Du. roes: ‘eenen roes drinken, to drink till one is fuddled; hy heeft eenen roes weg, he is fuddled’ (Sewel).
rout, a number of animals going together; ‘Of fallow beasts the company is called an heard, and of blacke beasts it is called a rout, or a sounder’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37; p. 100. Norm. F. route, ‘troupe’ (Moisy). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Route).
rout, to assemble together. Roister Doister, iv. 7. 2; Bacon, Life of Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 66). See Dict. M. and S.
rove, to shoot with arrows at a mark selected at pleasure or at random, and not of any fixed distance. Drayton, Pol. xxvi. 122; Warner, Albion’s England, ii. 9. 39; Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 35; ‘She rovde at me with glauncing eye’, Shep. Kal., Aug., 79; to shoot an arrow without fixed aim, ‘Manie bowlts were roved after him’, Harington in Nugae Ant. (NED.); a rovynge marke, a mark placed at an uncertain distance, Ascham, Toxophilus, 145; rovers, arrows used for this kind of shooting, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, Masque 2 (Cupid); to shoot at rovers, to shoot at random, ‘Love’s arrows are but shot at rovers’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 941; ‘Cato talked at rovers’ (i.e. at random), Udall, tr. Apoph., Pompey, § 14.