roundel

plural roundels · alternative archaic roundle

1. Anything having a round form; a round figure; a circle.

   the London Underground roundel

   1 more example

   The Overground has been given a seat at the Underground table. It has the roundel, the Johnston typeface, and it is on the Tube map.

   2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 93

2. entertainmentA roundelay or rondelay.

   Come, now a roundel and a fairy song ... Fairies sing.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 1

   1 more example

   The korreds are supposed to live in the cromlechs, of which they are believed to have been the builders. They dance around them at night, and betide the unhappy peasant who joins them in their roundels.

   1881, Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, page 381

3. A small circular shield, sometimes not more than a foot in diameter, used by soldiers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

   The roundel or rondache derived its name from its circular figure, it was made of oziers boards of light wood, sinews or ropes, covered with leather, plates of metal, or stuck full of nails in concentric circles or other figures.

   1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 26

4. governmentA circular spot; a charge in the form of a small coloured circle.
5. aeronauticsA circular insignia painted on an aircraft to identify its nationality or service.

   Synonyms: cockade

6. A bastion of a circular form.
7. IndiaobsoleteAn umbrella.

   […] a Roundel-boy; whose business, is, to walk by his master, and defend him with his Roundel or Umbrella from the heat of the sun.

   1773, Edward Ives, A Voyage from England to India, page 21