in the round

Prepositional phrase

1. (sculpture) Not attached to a background.
   • Noah's ark with animals in the round1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 65
   • Not so the sculpture in the round: it stands in ordinary space with the other bodies, a body like them. We must hold fast to this outcome; it will allow us to explain the true essence of sculpture, the designation we confer on sculpture in the round alone. Painting and relief create their own space.2012 [1920], “The Essence of Sculpture”, in Deborah Shannon, transl., edited by Jon Wood, David Hulks, and Alex Potts, Modern Sculpture Reader, Getty Publications, translation of Das Wesen der...
2. Arranged in a circle.
   • The students sat in the round.
3. Having a stage completely surrounded by an audience.
   • There is another sense in which we can say that theatre begins in the round. Teachers in schools frequently observe that the dramatic play of children and their early attempts at theatre frequently take a natural in-the-round shape.1982, Jack Mitchley, Peter Spalding, Five Thousand Years of Theatre, Batsford Academic and Educational
   • By staging national identity “in the round,” Arena opens up multifaceted perspectives of who comprises the nation and under what circumstances. Finchandler observed: “Since it has no back, front or sides, the arena becomes a highly democratic form for the audience, […].”2019, Donatella Galella, America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage, University of Iowa Press, →ISBN, page 15
4. Done with circular needles, so as to create tubes of fabric.
   • Loosely cast on 90 stitches. Place stitch marker and join to work in the round, being careful not to twist the cast-on stitches.2015, Heather Walpole, “Super Simple Cowl”, in Scarves in the Round […] , Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 4
5. (figuratively) In full detail; from all angles.
   • The government responds to such news with its usual ludicrous evasions: “I don’t deny there are costs to a decision like Brexit,” said Jeremy Hunt in November, “but there are also opportunities, and you have to see it in the round.”2023 January 1, John Harris, quoting Jeremy Hunt, “The wreckage of Brexit is all around us. How long can our politicians indulge in denial?”, in The Guardian