round off
verb1
To change the shape of (an object) to make it smoother and especially more circular or ovoid.
2
Mathematics, Sciences To change (a number) to an approximation having fewer significant digits.
- The instructions say that we are not to round off until we reach the final figure. [in a calculation with interim steps]
- 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.
1 more example
- "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
To complete or finish something.
- 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:
- 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:
- Derived terms
- round-off, roundoff
- Related terms
- rounding error, round number, round out, round to