round off

present singular third person rounds off · participle present rounding off · participle past rounded off · past rounded off

1. transitiveTo change the shape of (an object) to make it smoother and especially more circular or ovoid.

   Antonyms: square off

2. intransitivetransitivemathematicsTo change (a number) to an approximation having fewer significant digits.

   Round off 15.4 to 15, round off 15.51 to 15.5 or to 16, round off 0.499 to 0, and round off 970,000 to 1 million.

   2 more examples

   The instructions say that we are not to round off until we reach the final figure. [in a calculation with interim steps]

   "This product contains no PCBs" is a typical commercial distortion if it actually contains 0.498 of the measurement unit, rounded off to "0"

3. transitiveTo complete or finish something.

   Manchester United's in-form striker rose to head home Stewart Downing's corner and then rounded off a sweeping counter-attack involving Theo Walcott and Ashley Young to wrap up the formalities seconds before the break.

   2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC

   1 more example

   After this general training the apprentices are usually employed for a year or two as supernumeraries, being engaged to a large extent on special enquiries, a type of work well suited to rounding off their training and also to assisting both the company and the men to ascertain the type of work for which they are best suited.

   1942 July-August, T. F. Cameron, “How the Staff of a Railway is Recruited”, in Railway Magazine, page 206

   Antonyms: finish up, polish off