roundhouse
/ˈɹaʊndˌhaʊs/
roundhouse noun: a circular prison, especially a small local lockup or station house.
Noun
roundhouse (plural roundhouses)
- A circular prison, especially a small local lockup or station house.
- [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.1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 137
- A traditional circular dwelling elevated on stilts with a conical roof found in part of Southeast Asia.
- All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 110
- A prehistoric dwelling typical of northwest Europe in the Iron Age and Bronze Age.
- 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.2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 66
- The uppermost room or cabin of any note upon the stern of a ship.
- A privy near the bow of a vessel, especially as reserved for officers.
- A circular building in which locomotives are housed, sometimes with a turntable.
- 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.1948 November and December, “Crewe M.P.D. to be Modernised”, in Railway Magazine, page 372
- 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.2020 March 25, “Network News: HS2 work uncovers oldest roundhouse”, in Rail, page 16
- A punch or kick delivered with an exaggerated sweeping movement.
- In the game of pinochle, a meld consisting of a queen and king in each of the four suits.
Verb
roundhouse (third-person singular simple present roundhouses, present participle roundhousing, simple past and past participle roundhoused)
- To punch or kick with an exaggerated sweeping movement.
- We focused on the nerve-agent feint, and got roundhoused by the insurgent hook.2008 March 16, Nathaniel Fick, “Worries Over Being ‘Slimed’”, in New York Times
- 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.2009, Diane Tullson, Riley Park, page 18
Examples of roundhouse in a sentence
- When that roundhouse kick connected with his temple it sent him flying across the room.
- The challenge is how to unscrew the cap with a roundhouse kick without knocking the bottle over.
- Big as he was, all it would have taken was a punch, a single roundhouse and he would have decked him.
Forms of roundhouse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | roundhouses |
| alternative form | round house |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | roundhouses |
| present participle | roundhousing |
| past participle | roundhoused |
| past | roundhoused |
Origin of roundhouse
From round + house, a calque of Dutch rondhuis (“guardhouse”). First attested in the Mid-15th c.
Words formed from roundhouse
Phrases with roundhouse
Questions about roundhouse
- What does roundhouse mean?
- Roundhouse means a circular prison, especially a small local lockup or station house.
- What part of speech is roundhouse?
- Roundhouse can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce roundhouse?
- Roundhouse is pronounced /ˈɹaʊndˌhaʊs/ (US).
- What is the plural of roundhouse?
- The plural of roundhouse is roundhouses.
Words near roundhouse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: roundhouse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-roundhouse.wav.
Cite this entry: “roundhouse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/roundhouse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.